Apparently chastised by the global raspberry that greeted Diana, Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel returns to home territory with another film about Hitler. This time his subject is Georg Elser (Christian Friedel) who attempted to assassinate the Führer by blowing up the Munich Bürgerbräukeller in November 1939. Violently interrogated, Georg flashes back to his days as a carpenter, his affair with Elsa (Katharina Schüttler), the Nazification of his hometown and the dawning of his solitary purpose.
Elser’s story (previously told in Klaus Maria Brandauer’s Seven Minutes) is intriguing, but Hirschbiegel’s film has a seen-it-all-before quality that takes the edge off harrowing scenes of torture. Friedel has something of the steely vulnerability of a young Al Pacino, but remains shackled by the plodding material.
