DVD Review: Grimm Love (Rohtenburg)
DVD Review: Grimm Love (2010)
Distributor: Fangoria Fright Fest / Phase 4
DVD Release Date: September 28, 2010
Directed By: Martin Weisz
Cast: Keri Russell, Thomas Kretschmann, Thomas Huber
Review By: Kayley Viteo
First things first – if you ever want to lose several hours reading a fascinatingly gruesome story, search for Armin Meiwes, the man upon which this film is heavily based. The short version of Meiwes’ tale is that on March of 2001, he met Bernd Brandes over the Internet after Meiwes posted an ad for someone to meet a peculiar requirement: must desire to be consumed. This true story presents the perfect opportunity for a filmmaker to create a truly horrific thriller based on real events. Director Martin Weisz and writer T.S. Faull certainly capitalize to create an honest, intensely disturbing portrayal of a love story that was wrong from the start.
Katie (Keri Russell) plays an American graduate student that has come to Germany to study the controversial case of Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann), a cannibal who advertised online for a willing “donor,” finding one in Simon Grombeck (Thomas Hubner). Katie continues her research, her life reaching a dangerous point as her fascination with Hartwin grows into an obsession.
Grimm Love, also known as Rohtenburg or Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story, is similar to The Silence of the Lambs, organizing itself around the life of a woman tasked (in this case, tasking herself) with gathering information about a particular case/man for what she sees as a greater good. Flashbacks allow us into the world of Hartwin as Katie’s research continues, allowing the audience to travel through Hartwin’s mind and also serving to provide context for his actions. Particularly in a horror film, flashbacks have to be done very well in order to not come off as an exploitative device. Here, because the writing is so strong and because we’re seeing it through Katie’s frame of reference, the audience is just as eager for information as she is. The film works expertly at making sure the audience travels the same path that Katie does, which is essentially a downward spiral. By the end of the film, I would lay bets you’re so twisted and turned around you feel like you need to watch it again. On the one hand, you’re of course completely disgusted with Hartwin’s actions. On the other hand, Grombeck was a thorougly willing participant and yes, Hartwin is a darkly sympathetic character – you get the sense he’s lost, that the desire for actually consuming human flesh just happens to be what centers him. What is amazing (and terrifying) about Grimm Love is that somewhere halfway through the film, you start to identify with that need for such focus.
It’s hard to describe my fascination with this movie, suffice to say I connect with it on some sort of dark, personal level. Even beyond my connection to this movie, Grimm Love is alternately fascinating, horrifying, and ends up being a complete mind-fuck. Keri Russell, who I believe has never done anything remotely close to this role, is fantastic as Katie. My belief in her as a graduate student lost in some very dark material never once faltered and Russell’s acting in certain scenes serves to heighten the tension to an almost unbearable level. However, the true revelation here is Thomas Kretschmann, who takes a Hannibal Lecter type character and makes him a sympathetic, moral creature. Granted, a huge chunk of this achievement has to do with the writing, but Kretschmann is absolutely amazing in this role. Hubner, tasked with showing a dizzying array of emotional complexity (chief of which being having to act like he enjoys being eaten), is also stellar, fading only in comparison to Kretschmann’s tour de force performance.
In addition to the acting, the cinematography by Jonathan Sela (who went on to The Midnight Meat Train and Law Abiding Citizen) has to be noted. It looks amazing, one of those types of films that manages to be creepy and haunting, but gorgeous all the same. When everything in you wants you to look away, the picture is beautiful enough to make you keep on staring in fascination. This truly is an amazing film that manages to hit all the right notes, an achievement considering the complex storyline that could very easily be botched in the wrong hands.
Some will completely disagree with me, of course. Some will look at this film and view it as having no tension whatsoever since you know the main course (so to speak), but it’s important to view this film through the perspective that Weisz and Faull present. Grimm Love isn’t a story about a case or about the act of cannibalism – it’s about one woman’s fascination with a strangely seductive and irrevocably dark love story.
Grimm Love has had a pretty rough path. In March of 2006, Meiwes successfully lobbied and had the film banned in Germany for violating his privacy, preventing any distribution of the film in Germany, a ban which was only recently lifted in 2009. On top of that, the production company, Senator Entertainment, never released it into theaters elsewhere due to lack of financing. The film is finally available for viewing through Blockbuster as part of the Fangoria FrightFest lineup, but if you do pick it up (and this is one you should not miss), please try and ignore the appalling cover art. The DVD will get a proper release on September 28, 2010.
And please remember: it’s never a good idea to eat your feelings.
