Kritiken

The City Below develops in such a way that its romance seems to be both a subplot and its central dynamic. Put another way, this is a film about one thing as much as it is about another—and it is especially concerned with how the two interrelate, and with the narrative slippages that occur when they collide.

The centre of the film feels a lost in a confused script, unsure of whether this is a tale of personal drama refracted through the prism of global capitalism or vice-versa. As a result, it ends up a highly distracted mongrel that lacks engagement on either.

No less deadpan than World on a Wire’s robotic characters, Hochhäusler’s triangle—a middle-aged banking plutocrat (Robert Hunger-Buhler), a young troubleshooter (Mark Waschke) and his wife (Nicole Krebnitz)—enacts a serpentine waltz of desire and disgust in which the lines between carnal seduction and business takeover blur pitilessly.

This ideological core (fear changes sides) is not the most convincing aspect of a film which straddles broad and intimate stories.