The impacts of a one night stand prove that sometimes leaving isn’t as easy as opening the door, in the thriller “Berlin Syndrome”. While holidaying in Berlin, Australian photographer, Clare (Teresa Palmer), meets Andi (Max Reimelt), a charismatic local man, and there is an instant attraction and chemistry between them that takes them back to Andi’s apartment. A night of passion ensues between them, but what initially appears to be the start of a blossoming romance, then takes an unexpected and sinister turn when Clare wakes the following morning to discover Andi has left for work and locked her in his apartment without any available methods of escape. An easy mistake to make, of course, so Clare doesn’t initially lose her cool, except Andi has no intention of letting her go again. Ever. “Berlin Syndrome” is directed by Cate Shortland, and is rated R for disturbing violent content, strong sexuality, nudity and some adult language.

As if we needed yet another cautionary tale about how we should never go on vacation alone in a foreign land, along comes “Berlin Syndrome” and re-affirms those beliefs. While the story at surface levels feels rudimentary and even a bit derivative, there are certain alternating measures that screenwriter Shaun Grant takes to deviate this film from those that have depicted the very traumatic experiences within that of the links between being held captive and that of the real-life term known as “Stockholm Syndrome”. These original directions bring out the experimental side to Shortland’s film that embrace this familiar setup in new and entrancing methods. That’s not to say that everything here works. “Berlin Syndrome” inevitably stumbles as it stretches the minimal amount of material that the movie has for all of its entertaining purposes, limiting its emotional resonance in the once suffocating atmospheric tones that now had me feeling as cold and empty midway through the movie as the protagonist in our film.

On the subject of some of those originalities, the narration is surprisingly angled from the perspective more of Andi the captor, rather than that of Clare the victim. This is to be commended because usually this kind of subgenre of film will more times than not leave our villain in the shadows, revealing very little about his motive or his life outside of the box of seclusion that he has inflicted on his prey. The movie shows us that Andi isn’t some unstoppable monster or devastating force. He is very much a human antagonist who has the same kind of wants and needs as that of our protagonist, but goes about getting them in the most unorthodox of methods. What hindered this certain angle in perspective for me was that the film backs away from being about Palmer and this terrific performance that she is emoting, and settles for someone as bland as Andi in narration. If this captor were even remotely fascinating or slightly more developed, I think spending nearly two hours with him wouldn’t feel as much like a chore that it does here, and because of that, so much of the progression in plot stands still. A feeling that becomes evident about halfway through the movie when the pacing feels obviously uneven.

That’s a shame because the first forty minutes or so of this film had me glued to the edge of my seat, preparing me for a cerebral game of chess between the two players that unfortunately rarely surfaced. This is the kind of picture in which we as an audience crave that kind of supremacy in intellect that a favorable female lead can grant us, and even though I mentioned earlier that Palmer’s performance is right on the mark here, so much about her direction and material do her absolutely no favors in making a key ability in her repertoire stand out for her survival. The second half of the film feels like everything is being portrayed in slow motion, and while this could be a reflection of Clare’s life being played out minute-by-minute, it lacks the kind of stimulation in dramatic pull to ever keep us dry through the rains of repetition in her escape attempts. It does pick up in the final twenty minutes of the film, finally getting to the final conflict that we could’ve used thirty minutes earlier. The ending is satisfying enough, even for all of its ploys against predictability.

From a cinematic scope, Cate is certainly a more-than acceptable captain to helm some visionary perspective to this film that would normally be given a conventional spin. The color scheme in particular in the film has a slow robbing effect that drains all of the life out of it from the beginning of the movie to the halfway point, that then turns to bland white and grey coloring to get its point across. This is clearly intentional to mesh with that of Clare’s life, which is now just a shell of what it once was. Cate also embraces a lot of shots that are foggy upon first shot, but then use auto-clear about two seconds into the scene to use the glaring as intentional. The idea here is that Clare’s days are blending together, and one murky day could easily be the same as when she woke up the day before. Because of so reliance on time or dates, this measure in artistic design relays the ideas that this feels like one constant nightmare for Clare that blurs together and never ends.

As mentioned above, Palmer is radiant here, giving away her single greatest performance to date in the young starlet’s career. As Clare, we see the tragedy of a once ambitious youth who learns the hard way that caution is the most important instinct during traveling. Clare’s fragility becomes her lone identifiable trait by the third act of the movie, and it’s a testament to Palmer’s orchestration that she has commanded such a response, despite being in the minority of screen time between her and Reimelt. Speaking of which, Max too is chilling as the antagonist Andi. Because of his human approach, Andi’s unpredictability and cunning deceit is perhaps the most dangerous aspect to his character, and Reimalt’s tip-toeing of subtle paranoia is something that pricks and prods away at us as we learn as much about him on the same speed as that of Clare. Reading the synopsis, it’s easy to know what’s coming, but that doesn’t make Andi’s unchained rage any less menacing. He is ruthless, and Clare finds out over-and-over.

THE VERDICT – “Berlin Syndrome” locks us in a room for nearly two hours with two exceptional performances by its duo of actors that compliment the urgency behind the situation. What will have us scratching at the knob will be the uneven development between the first two acts, whose contrast in fluidity will serve as an obvious step down, as well as the shaky decision to record the antagonist as essentially the main character in this film. Even said, Shortland’s first major step in the public eye is an enigmatic spin about caution that doesn’t require the visceral to taut its gripping European art house vision. Check it out in theaters, but always be careful with the person sitting behind you.

6/10