Out of Order (1984)

Why so much hype?

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

"Abwärts" or "Downwards" or "Out of Order" is a West German 85-minute film from 1984, so this one is already over 30 years old. The writer and director is Carl Schenkel and it is one of the filmmakers' most known works, especially if you only count his German-language movies. He received some nice awards attention here and same can be said about the cast. Götz George won a German Film Award for example for his performance here, even if it was not a supporting performance at all. He was clearly lead, if anybody was lead in here. The cast includes a whole lot of actors that are still really well-known in Germany today such as George, the really young Hannes Jaenicke in his very first performance and Wolfgang Kieling, who was also nominated in the same category like George. If you look at these three, you recognize that they stand for 3 different generations of actors. The only mentionable female performance comes from Dutch actress Renée Soutendijk, but she was also the film's biggest weakness I think, not because of her acting, but because of the way the character was written.The kissing scene with Jaenicke or the scene when she randomly tells George's character that she is about to get his job felt really bad and were among the film's weakest moments. Obviously the filmmakers tried to use her to create controversy between the two alpha-males in the elevator, but it felt forced and wasn't working at all. Subtlety is sadly not the film's biggest strength and these were the thriller moments that weren't working at all. I personally thought the film was at its best when the action took place outside the elevator, namely when there was danger somebody would be falling down or even dying. Yes there may have been a bit too many ropes in danger of being torn, but it was still edge-of-seat material and going by these sequences, it was an 8/10 even.Another couple words on the actors. Jaenicke may not give a great performance in terms of range, but he was at least as good as Kieling who added very little for me, and Jaenicke's biggest strength was his physical acting here with which he shines and given it was a rookie effort, it was pretty good. The supporting performances include familiar faces too such as the late great Klaus Wennemann, Ralf Richter or Fassbinder protégé Kurt Raab in a brief cameo early on. And while I enjoyed watching this film, I still see it as a bit of a missed opportunity as the claustrophobic component has been used convincingly on really not too many occasions and this one could have added an entirely new dimension of thrill to the film. I guess you really have to be claustrophobic to feel the protagonists' fear here. I was wondering more why they would not just wait in there for help instead of risking their lives again and again. Is oxygen really a problem? I am not sure. Also, there were sometimes too many coincidence for my liking, but it adds to the plot and drama and that's why I can live with it. Even if it's not a perfect film by any means, I still recommend seeing it. I like that they kept it essential with this short runtime and kept it from dragging. It had more positive than negative moments and George really shines once again. May he rest in peace and awesome he left us films and performances like this one here.

Admittedly, there are some scenes in this movie that seem a little unrealistic. The ravishing woman first panics and then, only a few minutes later, she starts kissing the young lad while the old guy is right next to her. But as the film goes along we learn that she is a little volatile girl (or slut) and that partly explains her behavior. The cinematography of this movie is well done. We get to see the elevator from almost every angle and perspective, and some of those images and scenes really raise the tension. Götz George plays his character well, a wannabe hot-shot getting old and being overpowered by young men like the Jaennicke character. Wolfgang Kieling who I admired in Hitchcock's THE TORN CURTAIN delivers a great performance that, although he doesn't say much, he is by far the best actor in this play. One critic complained about how unrealistic the film was and that in a real case of emergency nothing would really happen. But then again, how realistic are films such as Mission impossible or Phone Booth. Given the fact that we are talking about a movie here, and that in a movie you always have to deal with some scenes that aren't very likely to occur in real life, you can still enjoy this movie. It's a lot better than many things that I see on German TV these days and I think that the vintage 80's style added something to this film.

The plot: Four people are caught in an elevator. One is a business man, the annoying kind who is aggressive and complains about everything and everyone and is a walking-talking sample of distilled stress and hostility. Then there's his colleague, a woman who is much more pleasant in her character. A teenage rebel who just broke into a coke machine and by his mere presence drives the businessman mad, and an older guy who just stole 100,000DM make up the rest of the cast...The movie is all about how they cope with their problem, as time goes on and on without any success in reaching the outside world, as the lights go out, and as the cables begin to snap one after the other....And yet, it isn't too exciting. The characters are stereotypes. The story is stupid and unlikely (how could so many things go so wrong in just one elevator?). You don't like the characters very much, you just hate one of them. And all the twists and turns in the plot are not contributing to the excitement, they are just stupid excuses for filling yet another few minutes with dialogue as the screenwriters keep running out of inspiration and ink on a full-length movie set in an elevator.Let's just hope "Phone Booth" will be a better effort...

What sounds interesting in the first place, is the theme of the movie: Four people get stuck in a small lift. The question I asked immediately when I read this was: Can a movie that has only one setting be gripping and eventful? The answer is: Yes, it can! It only can. The movie is well directed and the lift is photographed from all views you can imagine. Still, all the directing ideas are used up now, there cannot be any new lift movie.Unfortunately, in order to create a thriller full of action and suspense, they had to write a most unrealistic screenplay, full of coincidences and stupid twists. It's a pity, but obviously it shows that getting stuck in a lift is not suitable for filling a whole evening.