The Princess and The Warrior

The second collaboration between German writer-director Tom Tykwer and his muse, actress Franka Potente, The Princess and the Warrior couldn't be a further departure from Run Lola Run, the influential and groundbreaking piece of kinetic, adrenaline-fueled pop cinema that put them both on the map. It is an eerily serene, deliberately paced (133 minutes), deeply reflective and intensely psychological romance between a meek, unstable, ingenuous woman-child (an almost unrecognizably tentative Potente), who was raised by the staff at a psychiatric hospital, and an emotionally scarred ex-soldier (Benno Fürmann) who saves her life after a traffic accident. Tykwer takes the time to burrow deep inside the damaged psyches of these two characters, but the underlying bank robbery plot (Fürmann is a petty criminal) often feels like little more than subterfuge and the ending requires some serious suspension of disbelief. While the film boasts tremendous performances and an engrossing, enveloping ambiance, nagging problems and logistical questions are what's on your mind when the credits roll. Optional. (R. Blackwelder)