Life Eternal (2015) User Reviews

Very dry Austrian crime thriller

[kosmasp · 8/10 · 1 February 2016]

With more than one touch of drama floating your way. Superbly acted, with mysteries that cry to be solved and no easy answers to bail you or the movie out. Characters rich with little ticks and issues they have to deal with. With a past that is still haunting the present. But all in its good time.

The Austrians are more known for their weird sense of humor when it comes to films and this movie does not disappoint in that respect either. But it's more dry and more slow paced than other movies. If you can handle that and expect it, you'll be enjoying this. Trying to keep up and anticipating what is going to come next can be fun ... and it is in this instance

Really good

[jakobgf-95 · 8/10 · 21 May 2015]

Even tough this is an Austrian film and i myself live in Austria i'm still going to write this review in English because i just want to.

But before i start i have to admit that i haven't seen any of Josef Hader's movies about the character of Brenner but after seeing this one i can't wait to check out the other films and this is my favorite movie of 2015 so far.

Personally, i think the best aspect of this movie is the pacing. There are already 3 other movies with Brenner as the main character, but for people like me who don't know the other films this one still takes it's time so that the audience can relate to him. Same with the rest of the characters. Even the side characters are quickly established and nothing feels forced. When our main character enters a new location the film made sure to slow down a bit to get the audience used to the environment of that place and therefore it felt extremely native when you know this kind of environment like i do. Those scenes where also the best directed ones and the time given to each event was perfect. Nothing felt too short or dragged out. Throughout the whole film there where some cleverly subtle placed flashbacks that showed the audience slowly why the main character doesn't want to be in the environment the film takes place in and why the other characters react to him the way they do. These flashbacks don't tell everything that happened but just enough to keep the audience guessing and wanting an explanation. And in the end it all comes together in a very good way. The performances where all good except for Joseph Hader, he was great. Watching Austrian productions in the past it always felt kinda difficult to me not seeing just an actor playing a role but in this one i had absolutely no problem except for one single line somewhere in the middle of the movie which felt really awkward. In this scene a character gets really emotional and starts crying tears of joy. Maybe the actress doesn't have the skills to pull such a thing off or the director didn't pay any attention while shooting that scene but it is only a minor issue because as i said, the rest of the acting is good, even at it's lowest point.

There was some good placed humor throughout the whole film but i'm glad that they didn't use any jokes in some of the more serious scenes.

The score was also good. In some scenes the Volume of the score is turned up a lot to fit the pain that our main character is going through. The music was, in general, never out of place and the movie knew when to turn the music down or completely off to fit the atmosphere.

Also, there is some subtle placed critic about the subject immigrants in Austria. It really works well because it showcases immigrants acting disrespectful in public as well as Austrian people having prejudice against immigrants showing that both sides still need to improve and be more tolerant. Those scenes only last for a few seconds but it definitely sticks in your head if you pay even a little bit attention.

If there was one thing that i would call a flaw, it would be the narrator shortly after the beginning of the movie who explains that Brenner doesn't want to return to Graz. However, this narrator never appears again and that bothers me because it feels like that the writers couldn't find another way to tell the audience that information even tough that would take just one line of dialog between Brenner and his neighbor, for example.

But this is still a great movie and i highly recommend to check it out, especially when you are an Austrian.

The series continues in style

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 21 January 2017]

"Das ewige Leben" or "Life Eternal" is an Austrian German-language movie from 2015 and this one is the fourth entry to the crime/comedy series starring Josef Hader as Kommissar Brenner. The director is Wolfgang Murnberger, also as always, and he worked on the script together with Josef Hader and Wolf Haas, the writer of the original novels this entire series is based on. This is the forth installment actually to the franchise and I guess it is my second favorite. It is not as good as film number 3, but only because "Der Knochenmann" was just brilliant and this one here is merely good. It runs for slightly over 2 hours, so it is surely a pretty long watch, but apart from rare occasions in the first half, it never dragged, and the second half is extremely tense and rewarding. I guess I occasionally was not too impressed by some of the moments before Brenner returns to his home town, but when he does and Moretti, Düringer, von Waldstätten and Tiesel enter the picture, it becomes quickly all very interesting. With these names, you already see how appreciated this film series is in Austria. Not only did it score several important nominations in the big categories at the Austrian Film Awards, it also draws Austria's finest actors to its cast.

My preference here is entirely subjective of course when it comes to the actors. I like Hader and he is great to watch as always. Düringer is fine for the role he plays, even if he disappears quickly (you can probably imagine how given the subject). von Waldstätten I have never been too big on, but her physicality of the cold doctor fits nicely, which is probably more due to the make-up, but she does nothing wrong either and is okay. Tiesel probably does not have too much to work with honestly, but she is okay too. My favorite, however, is Tobias Moretti and it was really nice how he got built up as the main antagonist here. Decades after Kommissar Rex, Moretti is really at his peak in terms of performances, charisma and range as well. No surprise he is doing so fine in terms of awards recognition and the films he stars in and I think maybe he will even (despite his age) still make a successful progression to Hollywood. he is not worse as his fellow Austrian Christoph Waltz. And in this movie here, Moretti shines throughout it from start to finish, and even elevates the weaker moments. Of course, it is debatable if with all the cold-blooded killing going on, he'd really hesitate to shoot Brenner at the end, but maybe he realized that his own end was coming closer or maybe it just makes sense because he was also not the one killing Köck earlier. The almost only thing I did not like too much was von Waldstätten's character's confession at the very end and even if they built up doubts in her character with the vomiting for example, it still did not feel too authentic that she admitted to the murder. But this is just a minor criticism and despite that, it is still a really good watch. I highly recommend it, but maybe watch the earlier films first. Oh yeah, final note: Simon Schwarz is not in this one for a change. But enough other characters are in it to make up for that. Go see it.

Lazy, mediocre Austrian film

[summerloud · 5/10 · 4 July 2017]

Take a locally popular author's new novel, make another sequel out of it, pick the usual suspects for the lead roles, and you got yourself another run-of-the-mill Austrian movie.

Hader is good as Brenner, even though the whole "i am so depressed life is so hopeless" thing feels exaggerated at times.

Düringer is okay as Köck, his performance suiting one of the one- dimensional quirky characters he is used to playing

Moretti is downright embarrassing as Aschenbrenner, failing hilariously in his attempts at a Styrian accent in some scenes, while not even bothering to try in others.

The whole story is pretty predictable, only getting less predictable from the sloppy choice of actors - the "twist" of Maritschi being Dr. Irrsiegler's mother is hard to foresee, since in the back-flashes she is almost as tall as the men, while being much shorter when she is old - obviously not being the same person. Dr. Irrsiegler is obviously German, not Austrian (she does not even attempt to try to speak the local dialect, and just generally looks 100% German), so one would not expect her to be grown and raised in Graz.

Altogether the whole movie seems to have been put together without much effort or polish, relying on the usual big names in Austria pulling the crowd in the cinemas. It feels lazy and mediocre, and it is only because of the solid script and charming performance of Hader as Brenner that it does not feel like wasted time to watch it.

5/10.