Soundless (2004)

Best movie of this year hands down!

People are voting emotionally.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This is an excellent thriller/action movie. A professional hit-man becomes interested in the partner of his latest victim, who was under careful surveillance. In a way she's also a witness because he left her alive and she could have noticed something. She turns out to be distraught and he saves her. Being reluctant to engage in a relationship he appears and disappears in her life. Meanwhile a smart detective is after him noticing that this killer is characterized by his soundlessness.I see a lot of resemblances with the movie Heat: you have the proficient and likable bad guy, an equality outstanding cop on his trail, the bad guy who is all business falls in love but is not capable of expressing it, and in the shadows is someone else controlling the bad guy. This movie though has a more satisfying ending.This movie is intelligent, quiet, the characters also act by instinct not so much as by procedure (as in TV CSIs). It doesn't rely on loud special effects. But is thrilling when you see the bad guy act out his carefully planned hits.My only problem is with the casting. The hit-man is indeed cast against type. The problem is that he just doesn't have the physical constitution for the job. Also it seems that at some point, the movie makers forgot about the cop. He's supposed to be the hit-man's counterpart but in the later part of the movie he gets less interesting.A highly recommended film.

The anti-hero of this dark and moody thriller is Viktor (Joachim Krol), a professional hit-man – and a very successful one at that. Maybe that's one reason he's called Viktor?In this story, however, he's just completed a fairly standard hit and is now called upon to perform his finale – his most important hit for his mentor and paymaster, Martin Hinrich (Peter Fitz) – and that's when Viktor's life as a killer starts to unravel. Wouldn't you just know it?But, it all comes apart in a most unexpected fashion. For example, when was the last time you saw a film where a hit-man saves the same person's life twice? In two days? Well, you guessed it: cherchez la femme! That fairly standard hit wasn't so normal, after all: Viktor was so smitten by the blonde, Nina (Nadja Uhl), in the bedroom of the guy he just popped on the patio that he lets her sleep on, instead of eliminating her as a witness!Now, that could've been a big mistake, but the writer/director (Mennan Yapo)of this interesting romp turns that to Viktor's advantage after he saves her from drowning the next day: she's so distraught by the death of her one-night stand that she throws herself off a bridge. Viktor, who'd followed her, drags her out and calls for medical help – then fades into the background...Because he has that final job to do for Martin, so he must leave romance aside until the job's done – or so he thinks. Trouble is, one smart copper, Lang (Christian Berkel) is hot on Viktor's trail. How? Well, he's very smart: he uses deductive logic, forensic evidence and large data banks – and maybe some je ne sais quoi - to hone in on the most likely suspects. Not as well done as Sherlock Holmes, perhaps, but still impressive. And, maybe just a little too easy for narrative purposes.Meanwhile Viktor stays one step (or maybe two steps) ahead of Lang as he plans his hit on the target Martin wants dead; and it's no easy job, not this time. Compounding the scenario also is Viktor's inability to forget about Nina, whom he visits at her apartment and, well, eventually, the sparks fly as you might expect. He's falling for her, and it seems that Nina shares the feeling, although she still has doubts...Which she wants to dispel by following Viktor as he leaves her apartment to do the job – the final hit.What follows then is a very classy and richly ironic action sequence worthy of some of the best thrillers you're likely to see, and no more ridiculous than most. That part alone is worth seeing.It's well produced, the acting is up to the task – with Krol the consummate taciturn loner, and making Matt Damon as Jason Bourne of the Bourne franchise look positively garrulous – the photography has enough action sequences, from long shot to extreme close-up, to satisfy most, and the music is, well, almost not even there. But, when it is there, you notice it; and it fits.The film and story are nowhere near the prowess of Luc Besson, the late John Frankenheimer, Martin Scorsese and others. But, hey, all writer/directors start somewhere and this being Yapo's second effort, I'll make sure I see future efforts.

I think I have to disagree with the first poster, who said he this movie could have been great if the dialogue had been better.In my opinion the absolute minimum use of dialogue between the two main characters in this picture, and for Lautlos 'picture' is more true than usual, is one of its most interesting aspects.The emotions & thought of these two people are intensely displayed by a great combination of camera-work and acting. When the word are spoken the atmosphere already has the viewer closely connected with these two characters. I found myself thinking what the characters themselves realized only seconds later and stated in a very minimalistic way.Just a beautiful film...

Lautlos is a movie from Tom Tykwer's film company, and you can see his influence as a producer in the sometimes dreamlike, introvert sequences. The film is about a serial killer who finds love and subsequently plans to quit his old underground life. Joachim Król plays the silent hitman very well, he gives a hint of broken softness to the character so that it's easy to like him. The plot is also exciting enough to keep your attention, with the right balance between action and character development. The only big problem about this movie are the dialogues. They are deliberately artificial but in such an exaggerated way that they just spoil the whole thing. Still, with the Król-bonus, it's a 7 out of 10 for me.