The Counterfeiters

The Counterfeiters (2007) - 4/10

First Viewed: 3/25/08
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky
Cinematography by Benedict Neuenfels
Starring Karl Markovics as Sorowitsch and Devid Striesow as Friedrich Herzog

The Counterfeiters, the Austrian film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, has a fascinating premise. Sorowitsch, a former con artist who has managed to survive five years in the concentration camps, is enlisted by a German commander named Herzog to manufacture millions of fake bank notes in an effort to ruin the American and British economies.

Despite the intriguing story, the film does not work as well as it should. I am not a fan of the cinematography, which employs an odd conglomeration of de-saturated tones, handheld camera-work, jarring mid-scene zooms, high contrast, and repetition of compositions. It distracted from and ultimately hurt the film. Also, I never got to know who Sorowitsch truly was. The film simply presents him as a counterfeiter, a role that never changes or provides much in the way of character depth. The writing and Markovics' uninspired performance are also to blame for this lack of character development.

Simply put, I was bored. Instead of a fun, intriguing story with a fascinating lead, we get a poorly shot film with cliched dialogue, a boring protagonist, and standard secondary characters that we have already seen in other films that deal with concentration camps.