Is
a former East German informer really the Devil? He is rather Mephistophelean. Yet,
in their school days, Paul Meier sort of got the better of Georg Schmidt. Meier’s
karmic bill comes due years later, with substantial compounded interest, in
Denis Dercourt’s A Pact (trailer here), which screens
during the 2014 KINO! Festival of German Films in New York.
The
earnest young Meier was so smitten with Anna, he forged a supposed love note
from her to him, in hopes of spurring the arrogant Schmidt to dump her.
Surprisingly, it works. However, before stealing some other schmuck’s girl,
Schmidt extracts a promise from Meier that will loom large. At some unknown
point in the future, Meier must return his presumptive new girlfriend, should
Schmidt duly request her.
One
Unification later, Meier is reasonably happily married to Anna and the proud
father of two classically German looking teenagers. Much to his surprise, the
new boss of Meier’s investment banking firm turns out to be the very same Georg
Schmidt. Initially, things are rather awkward between the two ex-friends.
Of course, Schmidt is not exactly a touchy feely sort of fellow. He is, after
all, the son of an East German cop, who knew how to drop a dime to further his
interests. The doctored blackmail pictures Schmidt received of Meier in an
apparently compromising position with his assistant do not help matters. Even
worse, the international market turns against copper commodities, after Meier took
a bullish position. At least he can still count on the firm’s security chief
Daniel as a friend and ally.
Neither
Meier nor the audience seriously considers his pal’s suggestion that Schmidt
just might be Satan or some sort of djinn, but Meier’s paranoia will entertain
just about any other possibility. Frankly, he is such a hapless victim, many viewers
will probably start rooting against him. Still, it is hard to root for Schmidt,
but Dercourt obliges with a third act, forehead-slapping game-changer.
A Pact is a tonal
traffic jam that leaves dozens of question hanging unresolved, but it is never
dull. It starts out as an East German Jules
& Jim, detours through Jeffrey Archer territory and evolves into a
payback thriller. Viewers who are easily annoyed by cinematic head-fakes will
probably find more than they can take here. Still, it goes about its murky
business with German professionalism. At times, Dercourt (the French expat)
takes things over the top, but that is not such a bad thing.
As
Schmidt, Sylvester Groth is memorably severe and calculating, setting the atmosphere
of intrigue quite nicely. Poor Mark Waschke’s Meier is required to be a bit of
a doormat, but Sophie Rois brings all kinds of barely submerged crazy as
Schmidt’s fateful girlfriend, Yvonne. Likewise, Marie Bäumer is rather credibly
ticked off with the disappointing men in her life, while Johannes Zeiler steals
scenes in bulk as the resourceful womanizer, Daniel.
