80
The Dissolve
Despite some mawkish moments, this portrait of where espionage and domesticity collide is a unique take on typical John le Carré turf.
Two Lives (Zwei Leben)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Germany,
- Norway
- 2012
- · 97m
Director
Georg Maas
Cast
Juliane Köhler,
Liv Ullmann,
Sven Nordin,
Ken Duken,
Dennis Storhøi,
Vicky Krieps
Genre
Drama,
Thriller
Having escaped East Germany to reunited with her biological mother, Katrine is happily living with her family in Norway. There is a continuing legacy of war children born of Norwegian women and German soldiers, later taken to be raised in Germany. Once the Berlin wall falls, Katrine's past starts to catch up to her.
Stream Two Lives
What are critics saying?
80
The Dissolve by Jordan Hoffman
Despite some mawkish moments, this portrait of where espionage and domesticity collide is a unique take on typical John le Carré turf.
75
NPR by Ella Taylor
Two Lives makes a decent thriller, though it does seem a touch overloaded with grainy flashbacks and plotty flourishes retrieved from Sergei Eisenstein (or perhaps Brian De Palma). Not that these faults matter much: The most ham-fisted filmmaker couldn't ruin the incendiary material on which this tale is built.
60
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Two Lives is an absorbing, well-acted, moderately suspenseful mystery, although its time line of events is fuzzy to the point of impenetrability.
60
Village Voice by Aaron Hillis
The film takes one entire act too long to shake its mopey fog and get crackling.
50
Slant Magazine by Diego Semerene
The film's educational impetus is to announce to the world that even picture-perfect Norwegians continue to pay a heavy price for the horrors of WWII.
Loading recommendations...
Loading recommendations...