Munich Film Festival Review: Harms (2013)

Cast: Heiner Lauterbach, Friedrich von Thun, Axel Prahl
Director: Niki Müllerschön
Country: Germany
Genre: Crime | Thriller

Editor’s Notes: The following article is part of our coverage of the Munich International Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit filmfest-muenchen.de and follow the Munich International Film Festival on Twitter at @filmfestmunich.

A convict gets released from jail after 16 years. He meets his friends, well-wishers and also a guy who needs a small favour to get done by him. The task is to rob the Bundesbank and the deal looks fair enough for Harms (Heiner Lauterbach) to accept and get into yet another crime, this time with caution.

Apart from rare twists embedded with some action, the film makes no interest in any aspect. Even with the predictable narrative, it fails to engage the audience.

Niki Müllerschön’s latest film Harms starts something like a crime thriller that may well happen in a prison, but ends up in the most favorite and popular genre for many: the bank heist. Given the film is about how Harms and his close friends rob the bank by bypassing all the security and technological hurdles, we expect the narrative to be fast interspersed with lots of cuts. But the failure of the film lies in not fulfilling them.

Harms, an old yet well built man in his late 50’s, is feared among the public once he gets out of prison. There is one guy who follows Harms quite frequently and wants to speak with him. Harms is also attracted by the local hooker, Jasmine. Once the guy reveals his plans to Harms, he decides to discuss this issue with an old and trusted friends of his. They sense greed and try all sorts of ideas to make this heist a successful one. Sometimes it even lands Harms and his friends into trouble. Finally, how they overcome and who gets the share and who becomes a loser at the end is what Harms is all about.

Music, accompanied with frequent twists supports the film to an extent. However, it is marred by so much unnecessary bloodshed and some wayward acting , although no one matches or even supports Heiner in his performance as the main role in the film.

Given the film is about how Harms and his close friends rob the bank bypassing all the security and technological hurdles, we expect the narrative to be fast interspersed with lots of cuts. But the failure of the film lies in not fulfilling them.

Final moments of the film sprung some surprises on the so far boring narrative. Apart from rare twists embedded with some action, the film makes no interest in any aspect. Even with the predictable narrative, it fails to engage the audience. I have to admit that there are many better heist movies in your local video store to buy and watch rather than wasting time on this so called crime thriller.

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Venkateshwaran Ganesh

Staff Film Critic. Visit my personal blog at framesofeternity.wordpress.com

Venkatesh is a cinephile, who always try to relate some of the moments of his everyday life with the moving pictures. Though he started a bit late in exploring world cinema, directors like Kubrick, Bresson, Kieslowski, Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray made him stay in this wonderful world of cinema for years to come. Even in the midst of an apocalypse, he tweets @venkkeyy about films. And you can check his not so active blog http://framesofeternity.wordpress.com/ and motivate him time and again.

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