FOUR MINUTES
/
2006
DIRECTOR: CHRIS KRAUS
CINEMATOGRAPHER: JUDITH KAUFMANN
WRITER: CHRIS KRAUS
BUDGET: EUR1,400,000
GROSS: $9,315,125 (worldwide)
Four Minutes (Vier Minuten) is about an elderly piano teacher who trains a young convict at a women's penitentiary. Wait, don't go!!! I know what you’re thinking... It’s Dangerous Minds meets Freedom Writers meets (insert names of any of the dozen other movies where troubled youth are helped by a teach/mentor and everything turns out good in the end). This isn't that though...
This German film, that played at the Toronto film festival back in 2006, doesn't play into all those over-used and predictable Hollywood conventions. Sure, there are some moments that you might see coming, and certain conventions are followed, but, things don't have to be completely different from everything you have ever seen before in order to be original and interesting. Therefor, when they do it feels completely justified and something to celebrate rather then complain about.
The lead actors are great and their relationship and its development feels genuine and doesn't follow the exact path one might assume. That’s because there is some actual dimension to them. The old women isn't just a sweet old lady trying to help. She has a past that has shaped her and effects her to this day. As for the young girl, she too is more then just an angry convict. The secondary characters are also interesting and one of them is especially important to the story and is much more then just a plot device.
If you can find this film somewhere, it is worth the full 112 minutes.