In the Fade

 3/4

Starring: Diane Kruger, Denis Moschitto

Rated R for Some Disturbing Images, Drug Use, and Language including Sexual References

Every actor prays for a good role that allows them to show everything they've got.  Most roles these days are dogs; actors have become second to special effects and fan service (superheroes and the like) or are muzzled to the point where they speak in a monotone and have a dramatic pause after every line (Wes Anderson and his wannabes).  Movies that tell a story and require the people whose names are on the poster to actually act are rare.  They're made for next to nothing, if they get the green light at all.

This time it's Diane Kruger's turn.  The German model-turned-actress has always demonstrated that she has the scene presence and talent to become a movie star, but never before has she gotten the chance to show that she's more than a pretty face.  To be sure, she is gorgeous.  But she's also a good actress; she can make you pay attention to her even in roles that, frankly, aren't very good ("Troy" comes to mind).  But here she is front and center for every scene, and she turns in a powerhouse performance.  Although it didn't earn her an Oscar nomination, it should have.

Katja (Kruger) is living a dream life.  She loves her husband Nuri (Numan Acar) and young son Rocco (Rafael Santana).  Nuri has successfully put his criminal past behind him and become an upstanding member of the community, and she is helping him run his business while raising their son.  Then in one fell swoop, it's taken away from her.  Nuri and Rocco are murdered in terrorist bombing while she is at a bathhouse with her friend.  Now, she has to pick up the pieces of a life that she no longer has.

"In the Fade" is told in three acts: the event and its aftermath, the trial, and what happens next.  The first two acts are terrific.  Kruger is riveting as a woman who is facing an unbearable loss.  She is equally strong in the second act, where she is further traumatized by hearing in graphic detail what happened to her loved ones and being in the same room as their killers.  Unfortunately, the final act is underwritten.  Intellectually we know why things turn out the way they do, but the sparse nature of the dialogue make it difficult to identify with the character who takes center stage.  I'm being vague, but hopefully you get my meaning.

Director Fatih Akin shows no fear.  Often times in movies like this, directors are too timid to lay bare the brutality of their subjects, but those movies are forgotten quickly.  Movies that hold nothing back, like "Requiem for a Dream" or "The War Zone," linger.  "In the Fade" isn't in that league, but Akin doesn't hide the painful reality that Katja's life has become.  Nor does he shrink from the poisonous nature of hatred.  He confronts it head on, and as a result, his film hits the viewer with considerable impact.  This is not a movie that is easy to sit through.  It offers no easy answers nor hope.  Nor should it.  Hatred infects everything it touches, and Akin understands this.  For that reason and, of course, Krueger's heroic performance, the film succeeds on its own terms.