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Germany · 2012
Rated PG-13 · 3h 0m
Director Christian Schwochow
Starring Jan Josef Liefers, Claudia Michelsen, Nadja Uhl, Sebastian Urzendowsky
Genre Drama, TV Movie
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On the one hand, a portrait of the weakness and impending downfall of the crumbling Communist state in 1980’s East Germany. On the other, an intimate chronicle of a bourgeois family's struggles, dreams, and fateful decisions. Run-ins with the Stasi reveal the cracks in both the police state and divided family loyalties.
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The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
Maitland sticks close to the ground, providing a harrowing moment-to-moment account that foregrounds multiple acts of genuine heroism. The result comes as close to being a feel-good movie about senseless violence as anyone is likely to get.
RogerEbert.com by Sheila O'Malley
At its best, The Tower shows what life felt like to those who lived at that singular time, to those who dozed "pitifully and apathetically" in an unchanging political system before the rules changed, seemingly overnight.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
In its stunted theatrical version, the second half is a sketchy digest of events that leaves you feeling cheated.
It’s not a gimmick if it works, and “Tower” works unnervingly well. The film is essentially an oral history, with firsthand accounts from those who were there — survivors, responders, and onlookers — with their words read by younger actors.
As the psychology of the characters hardly connects with their distinctive milieu, the film merely suggests a conventional family drama littered with empty pot-shots at governmental authority.