Drei Stunden (2012) Online

The underlying ambitions of Drei Stunden, of looking at how hard a relationship can be in this day and age, especially for those who do not subscribe to the "practical" urban paths of business life, are admirable. The plot put together to express this is less so.

Martin is a dreamy individual with artistic inclinations, while Isabel is idealistic and acutely aware, politically and environmentally. But ultimately they are on the same wavelength, it is only their terminologies that differ. Just as Isabel decides to travel to the African continent to dedicate herself to a long term project, Martin comes to the realization that their great friendship, ever so slightly sketched in the first few minutes of the movie, is the basis of a much stronger bond. So he has just a few hours before Isabel's plane leaves to find out if he can keep her close.

The movie tries pretty hard to be modern and its pieces fit together reasonably well, but it makes it difficult to relate to its wayward leads, whose chemistry is not enough to overcome the narrative hurdle. It lacks passion and individuality, which means that it is not authentic enough to count, despite a good starting point that could have told a more engaging and very relevant story. As such, it is only a competent time passer.

"Drei Stunden" or "Three Hours" is a German 100-minute movie from 2012, so it has its 5th anniversary this year. It is probably the most known career effort still by director Boris Kunz, who is also part of the writing staff. The most known cast member is certainly lead actress Claudia Eisinger who I must admit I am quite a fan of. I believe she is as stunning as talented. The rest of the cast are actors that also some of the very biggest German film buffs like myself will not recognize. The main conflict of the movie is if they will get together or not as this is the story of a pair of best friends who are on the verge of getting romantically involved. Things get more serious when the female is about to travel to Africa and work there for several years. That's when the time factor comes into play and it is all about procrastinating all of a sudden. I must say I enjoyed the film at times and there are some scenes that felt smart and relevant. But these are sadly in the minority as the majority of the film is about pointless lengthy search sequences or just scenes that should have been left out completely. Also the film definitely has one or two plot twists too many (yes they get together, no they don't, yes, no...) and the wedding at the end just felt ridiculous to be honest, even if the essential idea was fine again that they reached satisfying approaches this way for their personal and professional lives. The attention to detail is where this film comes the shortest and it is so frequent that it is a negative deal-breaker. Such a shame. The initial potential of the story, Eisinger, the thing that this is not just another stupid rom com - all these are factors that could have contributed to a quality outcome for sure. But reality looks different and this is why I give the film a thumbs-down all in all. On a subjective note, I also must say that Reinke and Eisinger did not have the greatest chemistry, which made it difficult for me to cheer for them. Or I was just jealous, who knows. My overall suggestion is unfortunately that these slightly over 1.5 hours deserve to be skipped. Watch something else instead.