'Phoenix' A Review

Phoenix is a foreign WWII thriller about Nelly(Nina Hoss) a Holocaust survivor and former cabaret singer whose undergone facial reconstruction surgery. She returns to Berlin with her friend Lene(Nina Kunzendorf) in order to move forward with her life. It is Lene's suspicion that Nelly's former husband Johnny(Ronald Zehrfeld) turned her over to the Nazi's however Nelly is determined to reconnect with her husband. He does not recognize her but sees enough of a resemblance in Nelly in order to use her to access his ex-wife's inheritance. Nelly goes along with the ruse in order to reconnect with Johnny.

The film is a remake of a 1965 film that was an adaptation of a 1961 novel and the content feels correspondingly dated. Especially in comparison to last years visceral, compelling, and emotional Ida, Phoenix offers nothing in the way of freshness and is derivative of 50's/60's noir without any of the understatement, shadowed menace, or excitement that those films offered.

Other than Kunzendorf, whose character is a bright spot at the beginning and then shuffled off without any real explanation, the cast provides uninspired flat performances. Hoss as the lead is one dimensional, her only seeming character choice being bad posture. Zehrefeld portrayal is also overly simple, he is a shallow, insufferable, lug and we have no reason to buy into Nelly's ambivalence toward his character.

A tired, disappointing, reductive visit to the overly saturated field of WWII drama.

Don't See It.