Michael

Markus Schleinzer’s debut, Michael details several months in the lives of a pedophile (Michael Fuith’s Michael) and the young boy (David Rauchenberger’s Wolfgang) he keeps trapped in his basement. It ultimately comes as no surprise to learn that Schleinzer worked closely with Michael Haneke in the early part of his career, as Michael boasts a deliberate, clinical atmosphere that handily evokes the feel of Haneke’s hit-and-miss body of work – with Schleinzer, working from his own screenplay, delivering a spare character study focused almost entirely on the title character’s day-to-day exploits. And while the less-than-eventful vibe admittedly does result in a handful of narrative lulls, Michael benefits substantially from Fuith’s captivating performance and is, generally, far more interesting and compelling than one might’ve anticipated. (It doesn’t hurt, certainly, that the picture contains an undercurrent of tension stemming from the inherently suspenseful premise.) Schleinzer’s late-in-the-game efforts to transform the whole thing into a thriller fall relatively flat, however, which does, in the end, cement Michael‘s place as a striking yet somewhat erratic first feature from a decidedly promising filmmaker.

*** out of ****