Das Licht

The characters felt shallow and unconvincing to me. Tim, played by Lars Eidinger, is an ego-driven father who parades around his Charlottenburg apartment in the nude, blind to the death of the family's housekeeper lying just meters away. His daughter Frieda is a caricature of Gen Z activism-climate protests by day, drug-fueled clubbing by night-while his son Jon retreats into an escapist VR world. These archetypes seem designed to tick boxes rather than create relatable human beings. Even Milena, played by Nicolette Krebitz with some depth, is saddled with clichéd dialogue and an implausible storyline involving her work in Nairobi.

Stylistically, the film is all over the place. Musical numbers erupt randomly, including Nicolette Krebitz dancing on Mommsenstraße in a sequence that feels more like a parody than a genuine artistic choice. VR gaming scenes are visually impressive but narratively hollow. At one point, animation takes over with superhero aesthetics that feel completely out of sync with the rest of the film. And then there's the recurring use of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which is shoehorned into the movie so awkwardly that it left me cringing.

The central plot device-a stroboscopic light that allows characters to connect with the dead-could have been intriguing but instead felt like a forced metaphor for spiritual healing. Farrah, the Syrian refugee turned housekeeper and mystical savior, embodies problematic tropes: she exists solely to heal the privileged Northern family while her own struggles are sidelined. The film's attempt at social commentary comes across as tone-deaf and self-congratulatory rather than insightful.

The permanent rain in every exterior shot, which rarely looks real, just gets annoying at some point, especially when the sun is shining in the background.

Ultimately, Das Licht left me frustrated and disappointed. It's not just that it fails to deliver on its ambitious themes-it's that it seems oblivious to its own shortcomings. Tykwer indulges in stylistic excesses and narrative pretensions without anyone stepping in to say "stop." The result is a film that feels bloated and self-important, more concerned with appearing profound than actually being so. For all its visual flair and thematic ambition, Das Licht is a cautionary tale about what happens when creative hubris goes unchecked.