Manipulation (2011) Reviews

• Very bleak political thriller, not for everybody

  Horst_In_Translation2015-12-02

  And sadly, the includes me as well. "Manipulation" is a 90-minute Swiss thriller from 4 years ago directed by Pascal Verdosci. Don't mind the country of origin as you will perfectly understand the film if you speak German. No heavy Swiss accent in here. The film is mostly a Brandauer one-man show and one of his most recent films. I am not entirely sure if Sebastian Koch ("Das Leben der Anderen") is supporting or co-lead, but he plays the second major character. This is not really based on actual events, but instead based on a novel. The ending is pretty good, but I am not sure if it's worth 80 minutes of waiting as I found none of the previous actions particularly thrilling or captivating. Maybe you need to be Swiss to love this one or maybe you need to have read Diggelmann's book. I am neither. I'd only recommend this to the most hardcore fans of political thriller films. This is a very specific movie and it's sometimes so precise that it is actually difficult to understand the exact plot developments. Maybe an interest in Middle European, or even Swiss, history during the Cold War years might help. I personally won't watch it again and I did not find it memorable, even if Brandauer gave a good performance as usual. Thumbs down.

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