drmarre One of the worst movies I have ever seen. Inconsistent story line, way too long, camera shots that last forever, mute characters, scenes that have nothing to do with the story, etc. E.g. why do we have to watch the protagonist practicing his martial arts moves? Especially when it's a bad move like when he teaches his girlfriend to defend herself from being choked. I hope no female viewer will memorize that move, because it will not work at all but even put her in greater danger.A typical poor German movie, I have seen many of this kind. Heavy stuff, always trying to explain the world to us, and/or trying to educate the audience when it is not called for.The story could have been told in 90 minutes (max). But it drags on and on and on.But the worst is the sound, there is a constant background noise. The sound editor should be put in jail for this masterpiece, at least he should not edit another movie.What a waste of time and money.Dr. Marre (ph.d.guy)

jan-nebendahl This movie is the best example for what happens, when someone does not focus on the script while making a movie.The DVD booklet says a lot about intimacy, about how this intimacy with the characters was developed while making the movie. I can only say: Thanks for wasting at least an hour of my life. The movie starts with a most brutal raping scene that made me wanting to puke. From there it staggers along, with a lot of scenes showing Jürgen Vogel naked exercising, masturbating, and similar, until the love story with Nettie (played very well by Sabine Timoteo) develops.The movie is 163 minutes. With enough meat to make it 90 minutes. In an interview the director (who shows his semi-existent camera skills in too many shaky scenes) talks about the script becoming "a kind of map with a lot of blanks to be explored while filming", and thats shown in the movie. 5 minute long end scene with Nettie holding Theo at the beach, 15 minutes chasing Theo through Berlin, etc. No focus. No story. Very arty. Thanks for wasting German TV-fee money on that one.And we see way too much of Jürgen Vogels penis. Some things need not to be shown. Art is too impress without showing. Too show it all just shows that the director lacks the means to create all the horror and disgust without the clear picture. On the contrary when Theo breaks into a woman's apartment to rape her we see him leave, but we have no idea whether his demons got the upper hand or not. So there is sadistic curiosity when someone is raped, but when the free will has it's short time, it's too much to just state the fact and the audience is left in the dark.The camera is so bad that it hurts. Has no one ever told the director that a digital camera is not the right choice for dark scenes ? When a leg in the dark, or a face, consists of about 5-7 shades of grey, the camera might have been the wrong choice. And the movie has a lot of dark scenes. And they all look the grainy way which is the best such a camera can do in such a scene. Maybe some less intimacy and some more professional pictures might have been achieved by using a real camera man instead of doing it all alone.So, after all, the movie sucks. The actors are great (3 stars for that), but thats about it. 3 years of research and writing, just to throw the script away as soon as you start filming. But hey, who cares, it's not as if this movie was supposed to make any money. A classical German.

info-9360 "Der freie Wille" is the tragedy of the rapist Theo (Vogel). After years of imprisonment and struggle for a normal life and love, he realizes that he can never be free of his pathological sexual urge. I saw this movie yesterday and it left intense, but contradictory impressions on me. First and above all, I appreciate the brilliant and authentic acting of J.Vogel, S.Timoteo, M.Zapatka and the whole ensemble. I saw real persons, not roles, sharp characterizations, not clichés, good actors, not stars. I appreciate the courage of the producers to realize such a movie, too. It's necessary to make movies like this. But in my opinion it has some severe structural problems, and that's why I refused to let story & characters affect me till the end. What a pity! Okay: some extremely disturbing scenes are shown, because the story isn't nice. Okay: this movie is a hard challenge for mind & heart, because cruelty against women is bad reality - worldwide. Okay: the main character Theo is a tragical monster, because of his unsolved conflict. Okay: Theo's only girlfriend Nettie (Timoteo) has to be both a highly neurotic and very intelligent person - other girls wouldn't be able to like Theo, and he wants her love so badly. Okay: the story is concerned with pain, cruelty, dread, fear, sorrow - all the abysses of human soul. But 3 hours long? It seemed to me that the movie contains too much unnecessary scenes (i.e. Nettie's job in a Belgian chocolate factory), that didn't help the story and unfortunately failed its impact on me. Eventually, for Theo, his victims and Nettie their lives are infinite real time human catastrophes. But to be and stay deeply affected by a character's tragedy in a movie, it isn't necessary to reveal every little detail of his or her life as if it happened in real life. This fact even weakens my attention and sympathy for the anti-heroes.It appears to me, that the movie couldn't decide between drama and documentary. But the really bad effect on me as the film's audience, who expects drama art, not real life: in the long run it's too exhausting to follow the plot. Unfortunately the key scenes get the same attention as the under-plots (and after a too long time no attention anymore). Therefore the dramaturgy kills itself. Besides, too much Method Acting. The story is intense enough - why so much long takes of sighs and yells? Timoteo does a brilliant job - when she shows her feelings subtle and reserved. I was also fascinated by Vogel's performance - when he shows soul instead of nakedness. I also concede, I'm not happy with the very hard ending. But somehow I would've liked it, if the movie would've been cut as a piece of drama art, not as a diary of pain. c.k.

neomagic Saw it here in Germany yesterday. This is a pretty intense film. It's a psychological study about two people, one of them a rapist and one a shy young women (strange personality as well) who seem to develop feelings for each other. Because of the very gritty atmosphere and some disturbing scenes quite a few people left the cinema. Even though I appreciated some of the film's aspects like not holding back on anything and developing deep characters I still felt like the director forgot to deliver a final cut of the movie: it was so long (160 minutes) and stuffed with endless shots that didn't help the story, that I felt bored many times, in spite of the extreme story and the brilliant acting. Another thing that bugged me was the low resolution, low color, video camera style which was probably supposed to make the film look even more bleak - unnecessary in my opinion.Had it been cut to regular film length, it would have greatly benefited the impact of the movie. Like this, for me it's a 7.P.S. One guy here mentioned in his review, that understanding of different cultures is necessary like the Germans' "cool and thoughtful communication style". I have never seen people in Germany talk as little as the characters in this movie and can't imagine any two people to build a relationship based on one sentence per five minutes.