The Princess and the Warrior (2000)

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

When you do the same thing over and over again you'll probably end up making a boring movie. And here is Tom Tykwers "The Princess and the Warrior" with Franka Potente and Benno Fürmann. It wouldn't be as bad without all the stereotypical styles of Tykwer. It's as if he works in a stasis without any new ideas. He doesn't deliver anything - ANYTHING - new here. There are the connections between strangers that tell us that everything is connected somehow (think "Cloud Atlas" and you see that Tykwer never has something new to tell), the moral dilemmas and all the personal challenges that are about nothing really. But if it's the first Tykwer film you watch, then you get a tense story about people who wanna break out of their normal life patterns told with slow dialogues and some very fine music. But for this you can basically watch every Tywker movie.

The lonely nurse Simone "Sissi" Schmidt (Franka Potente) spends her life with the interns and colleagues at the Birkenhof mental institution where she works. One day, a friend of Sissi from overseas asks her to go the bank to check her inheritance that is in a safe and Sissi goes to the city with a blind patient. Meanwhile the smalltime crook Bodo Riemer (Benno Fürmann) is chased by two men that he had robbed and he provokes an accident. Consequently a truck runs over Sissi while she is crossing the street and Sissi lies under the truck, but she can not breathe. Bodo helps her with a tracheotomy and she becomes infatuated with the guy. Fifty-three days later, she is discharged from the hospital and she seeks out Bodo. However Bodo has a severe trauma from the past and rejects Sissi. Further, Bodo and his brother Walter Riemer (Joachim Król) are planning heist the bank where Walter works. However their lives entwine again when Sissi arrives at the bank where Bodo and Walter are robbing. "Der Krieger und die Kaiserin" is a weird romance, with an unconventional love story and bizarre characters. However, Bodo is an unlikable character; the shallow screenplay has many flaws and is too long; and the film is boring in many moments. The masturbation scene is silly; there is no explanation why Bodo had background to perform a tracheotomy; the insistence of Sissi in visiting Bodo is annoying; and the participation of Sissi in the heist is ridiculous, and to open a safe in the bank she should have provided her personal data to the clerk. The camera work and the soundtrack are excellent. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "A Princesa e o Guerreiro" ("The Princess and the Warrior")

I found The Princess and the Warrior to be engaging and interesting but too long.Simone or Sissi was born in a mental hospital and she tells her love interest that her father is 'out there' as she indicates the common hall where the patients now congregate in the place she is now employed. This in itself could make one feel claustrophobic and develop a sense of dread. Sissi walks like she feels a sense of dread and she sometimes acts that way too. With good reason. Her life is one that anyone would want to escape and this is what she wants also.It is all interesting but the film is too long. Some of the scenes are played out way too long and I found myself becoming bored. I never want to fast forward through films but this one made me feel that way. I really believe that if they had trimmed this down and compacted it a bit the film would have better and made more impact. By the time the ending comes you find yourself feeling bubbly not because of what is happening on screen but because you know this film is actually ending. I say shorten it up and trim some fat and you've got a good film here but as is it's slow.

This had a very good story and could have been a very good movie, if it had been directed by someone that understood that his audience needed to be entertained while watching his product or at the least kept awake. I was constantly dozing off with the pace of the whole movie. Everyone took an unusually long time before speaking their lines, as if they were trying to remember them. The scenes almost fit together but seemed to be lacking in continuity. Even the final scene is milked for an excessively long time. I presume that is in keeping with the central mind numbing theme to bore the audience out of its' mind. The scene where 'Bodo' is driving the car and sitting in the back seat watching himself is precious. I'm sorry I wasted my time.