Cate Shortland, the director of the widely admired Somersault, has made an efficient but unrewarding and ultimately pointless psycho-thriller, adapted by Shaun Grant from the 2011 debut novel by Australian author Melanie Joosten. It is set in Berlin, a mecca for backpackers and international hipsters. Clare (Teresa Palmer) is a tourist from Brisbane, wandering around the city, photographing the East German architecture that fascinates her, but feeling a little aimless. She runs into Andi (Max Riemelt), a charming, interesting German guy who chats her up in the street. They go back to his place; the next morning he goes off to work, leaving her to sleep. Clare’s loved-up mood is dispelled, however, when she wakes up and realises he has locked her in his apartment and taken her sim card. Berlin Syndrome feels like a “lite” version of Lenny Abrahamson’s Room (2015) or the Fritzl nightmare of Markus Schleinzer’s Michael (2011), but diluted and given a more bestseller, Girl on the Train flavour. There are the regulation number of heartstopping near-escapes and creepy normal-life interludes for the captor that gesture at a psychological explanation, but the story is only heading one way. Clare has what in horror terms is automatic Final Girl status from the beginning. Slick, but disappointing.
