Jenna Walter
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Verity Robins
Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
Gary
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
This is "Silentium", an Austrian German-language film from 2004, so it is already over 10 years old. It is the second of so far four films from the Brenner series directed by Wolfgang Murnberger and starring Josef Hader, who also wrote on the script here. I must say I did not like the first film, but I really loved the third (thanks to Bierbichler mostly). This one we have here fits in nicely. It was made between them in terms of time and it also fits right in terms of quality. It was a good watch, but nothing great I would say. The humor was working on several occasions and the case Brenner was investigating was also interesting as it involved him going up against a scrupulous priest and his two murderous henchmen. This is really not at all about guessing who the bad guys are. Actually you see two of them in the very first scene and it's immediately obvious to who fills the role of the main antagonist this time."Silentium" runs for almost 2 hours and manages that it almost never drags. The early scene with Brenner losing his job as a mall detective when a woman accuses him of touching her inappropriately despite being actually a thief tells a lot about the comedy in here. We laugh at Brenner on some occasions, but we don't really need to feel sorry about it. Dark humor is common in Austrian movies and this one here fits in nicely under that category. To me personally, Brenner (in his non-police moments) always reminds me a bit of Louis C.K in his hit series "Louie". The approach to comedy feels similar sometimes. The cast is pretty good too. Schwarz is on board again as co-lead to Brenner and Król gives a good portrayal too. Jürgen Tarrach, Georg Friedrich and the late Christoph Schlingensief don't have that much screen time, but they give small yet memorable performances, which i enjoyed. Especially Tarrach (an opera singer with a very unique method of training his vocal chords) is completely hilarious. There is violence in here, also sometimes very graphic scenes, so it's not for the easily offended. But everybody who doesn't mind that and likes their crime movies with an ounce of comedy will have a good time watching here. Just like myself. I give "Silentium" a thumbs-up.
Katharinaki
I really liked Josef Hader (Brenner) before, but after seen that movie, I must say I love him! In Austria, he's also known a a great comedian and he now shows surprisingly outstanding acting skills in this movie.All the other actors make an excellent job as well, in particularly Simon Schwarz as Brenner's friend Berti.The movie deals with a very explosive topic - the catholic church and sexual abuse/prostitution. I really think that they somehow managed to handle it with the due respect to this crime, but never forgetting to outpoint its existence, even in a beautiful city like Salzburg (where we might think, it only exists in other places).If you're digging black humor, you have to see Silentium!
mikaschmidt
i had seen all movies with Josef Hader and "silentium" is his best. I like the language of Vienna and the Austrian humor.absolutely excellent movie!Josef Hader is a great actor and he plays "Brenner" as an unrepeatable character. the movie plays with black humor with the catholic church, with some good blasphemy scenes, and on the other side with the conservatives of the Salzburger Festspiele. this is magnificent. this movie is art!! with great actors (e.g. Udo Samel, Jürgen Tarrach... etc.)highly recommendable!
Starbuck-13
I really like Austrian humor. Many Austrian comedians display a certain kind of self irony modern German comedians seem to be incapable of. Georg Hader is one of the best Austrian comedians out there, and his movies are unfortunately hardly famous in Germany, which is a real pity.Hader mixture of black humor, self irony and the wonderful accent provide splendid entertainment. in "Silentium", he targets the catholic church and the high society of the beautiful city of Salzburg.While Salzburg is a beautiful panorama for this movie, the most important thing about this film are the characters, who - far from being heroes - try to solve a murder mystery with nothing else but courage and surprising integrity - considering they hardly manage to keep their own lives straight.A wonderful example of Austrian comedy. Highly recommendable!
