Review of Victoria (2015) by George D — 07 May 2016

Victoria Review: A foreign indie thriller that builds suspense wonderfully.

Every so often a film comes along that I want everybody to see, I want to discuss it with everyone I know and revel in the fantastic medium of film making. 'Victoria' is absolutely one of those movies.

Usually I would talk about the plot but the best way to experience this film is to know as least as possible. If you know you want to see 'Victoria' go see it now and read this review after.

'Victoria' is a foreign film set in Berlin and characters speak English with the German dialogue subtitled. I will admit a few times I struggled to understand some English which was a little frustrating but was never so important it took me out of it.

'Victoria' was filmed in one take, and I don't mean like 'Birdman' with camera tricks I mean literally one take of 2 hours and 15 minutes with the camera rolling the entire time and it's absolutely insane. This makes 'Victoria' relentless, never giving you a chance to breathe or relax and it fits the film perfectly.

One of the most fascinating things about 'Victoria' is how they blurred the lines between a criminal and innocent. You see these characters commiting these abhorrent crimes and yet you empathise with them and feel they had no choice.

'Victoria' was largely ad libbed understandably due to it being filmed in one take. I can't wait to see the behind the scenes on the Blu-Ray and delve into how they created a near-perfect one take film.

The one issue with 'Victoria' that stops it from being a perfect film is the beginning. The beginning was just a little to slow for me and while there are really important scenes that affect the future I feel it could have been tightened up. I can forgive it though as it was filmed in one take I understand why it felt slow. Let me tell you though, once 'Victoria' puts its foot on the accelerator, it grips you in your seat and never lets go and it's one of the best thrillers I have ever seen.

The acting in 'Victoria' is astounding. The realism these unknown actors achieve in its 2hrs and 15 minute running time is truly impressive. The leads Laia Costa and Frederick Lau play Victoria and Sonne and I will be following them and very much looking forward to their future projects.

The soundtrack of 'Victoria' is haunting in an absolute essential way and listening to the credits really shows how the soundtrack affects the mood of 'Victoria' beautifully.

'Victoria' is a ground-breaking film that everyone should see and is unlike any other. Exceptional unique films are only getting more and more rare so please support films like this and 'Son Of Saul' so producers and directors have more faith in audiences' reception of non-mainstream features.