The film stars Kostja Ullmann, Corinna Kirchhoff, Marlene Tanczik, Iris Berben, Lisa-Marie Koroll, Lorna Ishema, Numan Acar, Alina Levshin, Tom Böttcher, Gizem Emre, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Dalila Abdallah, Simon Amberger, Zemyna Asmontaite, Jan Beller, Alida Bohnen, Aleyna Cara, and Cynthia Cosima. Ullmann, Kirchhoff, and Tanczik are fantastic as the morally conflicted heroes, a fascinating combination of Hamlet and Benjamin Button; and the supporting cast, including Berben and Koroll is spot on.
The film falls a bit short of what it could have been but still manages to deliver a thrilling action movie. Perhaps it would have been more suspenseful had we invested in the characters. The story never manages to convince us that Max and Elena may be at times changing because of some residual sense of age, and it never defines the moment when Max decides to become a decent human being. The film gets an A for concept and a C for execution. By sacrificing character and believability for action, director Kunz dumbs down what could have been a compelling sci-fi flick. What do you do if you have a confounding philosophical idea, but you're not quite sure to handle it? You add guns to your story. Lots of guns. Not only does it effectively manage to walk the line between the two, it also manages to re-introduce the world to the talent and promise of the three leads. It manages to leaven a potentially leaden premise with a few gags that gently mock the absurdity yet never undermine it to a degree that it's anything less than enjoyable. It's not that I think Kunz's film is a decent one, it's that I don't think it's anything like the awful movie it's largely been painted as. Kunz is big on visuals but not much on storylines. But there are some provocative concepts about life, death, aging memory, identity, and, well, justice. Even when the film abandons its headier questions of identity and immortality so director Kunz can get to the next shootout or car chase, the actors keep it lively. Much more about the change that may come from walking a mile in someone else's shoes - and also feet - than it is about anxiety over death or the strange marriage of time and aging. An improbable, if thought-provoking mind-bender built on a house of cards that holds up only to the extent you're willing to go along with its preposterous premise. The movie has several surprising twists, and will tug gently at your heartstrings, a la Warren Beatty in the 1978 remake of Heaven Can Wait.
Simon says Paradise receives:
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