Review of The Miracle of Bern (2003) by Quartico B — 22 Oct 2018

I'm watching this movie in my German class right now. It's alright. The serious parts of the storyline (that of the main protagonist Matthias) are pretty good. The actors have nice chemistry and the seriousness of it sets a nice, even tone.

However, the other storylines (the one with a reporter and his wife and even the one with Helmut Rahn, a professional soccer player in the movie) fall flat and take you out of the movie. Personally, I feel like the film would have worked better if it had taken out the story with the reporter and a lot of the parts focused on Rahn and focused on just the Matthias storyline. The overall tone would be more consistent and established, making the movie-going experience less jarring and more organic.

However, for what the movie is, it's not bad. It could improve, and I'm sure the director, Soenke Wortmann, has produced many other films since Das Wunder von Bern that have improved in quality. In conclusion, there is a lot of promise and potential in this film, but in the end this potential is never truly developed, leaving the viewer with a tonally confused film and a message that becomes near impossible to receive.