The over-ambitious Koralnik has a dream job: he is a contract killer for a secret EU programme. But even eight years after his training he still hasn't had a single hit. Bored and frustrated, he lives according to the programme's strict rules - withdrawn, no social contact and constantly undercover. One day, the shy Rosa crashes into his car and life. Before he knows it, Koralnik is having dinner with her. For the first time, he can flee his everyday misery for an evening of company. But then the telephone rings. It's Koralnik's first job. With Rosa alongside, Koralnik sets off on a chaotic odyssey through a night in which nothing goes according to plan. It is only when Koralnik's target is revealed to be none other than one of his colleagues that the rigid concept by which he lives finally comes into question. He is confronted with the dilemma of either protecting his secret programme or drawing a line under his unfulfilled existence as a killer.
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Reviews
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
Gripping story with well-crafted characters
A Masterpiece!
There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.
"Die Einsamkeit des Killers vor dem Schuss" or "A Hit-man's Solitude Before the Shot" (also the literal translation of the original title) is a German film from 2014, so it is still a relatively new film. The director and also one of the two writers is Florian Mischa Böder, for whom it is as of today the most recent and most known filmmaking effort. The latter is due to the fact that the lead actor here is Benno Fürmann, one of Germany's more known character actors for a long time. It stays comfortably under the 1.5-hour mark, which means it is far from a long movie and that is a good thing too as honestly this wasn't a good watch at all and it wasn't half as thrilling as the title suggests. Then again, does it really? Actually, the title sounds a bit pretentious already, especially if we consider the overall quality of the product here. It's hardly Fürmann's fault though. He is kinda okay and only disappointed in the comedic moments (again). This definitely isn't his genre. But another lead would not have turned this into a quality film either. The film suffers the most from its confusing and over-the-top script. It wanted to be so so much and turned out really little as a consequence because the talent did not even get close to matching the ambition. "Think big" is not always a good premise. The cast hardly offers any other names than Fürmann, even if Hörbiger may be known to some, but mostly due to her family as I don't see too much talent in her either. But even if the film started getting messy when her character enters the picture, it's far from all her fault really. The constant developments and plot twists caused irreparable damage and it got worse and worse the longer it went. At some point, there was simply no way back. It says it all when the first minutes are the best of the film as we are being introduced to the central character's profession. And it was still quite mediocre, nowhere near the level of Léon for example. If it's a comedy, it is never really funny. If it's a drama, it's never really relevant. If it's a thriller, then it never had me at the edge of my seat. It's probably also not a failure, but there's no way I can give it a positive recommendation. Mixing crime and comedy (even if there are dramatic moments) is always a big challenge and it clearly proved too big for the crew here. Watch something else instead.
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