User Reviews

Hey, this Ralf Westhoff seems to knows a lot about people! We have nine women and nine men taking part in a speed dating event, each person has five minutes to talk to each opposite. A good idea to make a movie out of these conversations. And even better: it works very, very well! The dialog is witty, original and authentic, each person is subtly characterized, without falling into the cliché trap, something that is unusual for German movies, remember: All these years, we Germans were tormented with silly zeitgeist comedies such as "Workaholic" or "Stadtgespräch".

But now the time has come for young German directors to do their own thing and take the risk of producing movies which are entertaining and funny AND intelligent and sensitive at the same time. The timing of "Shoppen" is good, too: Although it presents mainly dialog, it keeps the tension and interest. After a while, you actually become curious to see how this man and that woman would do. Some of the participants meet later on for a two-some, it's fun to see them interacting together in "real life". Of course, the film has a few drawbacks: it's not very cinematic (but can such a movie be?), the musical soundtrack could have been better, but all this is only marginal.

The most important thing about this movie: We have some damn good actors here. Imagine this: All of them are still pretty unknown even here in Germany (most were derived from the Munich or Bavarian theater scene). But I predict that out of the 18 main actors, at least 11 will quickly become very well-known in the movie and TV scene over here. It's great to see so many fresh and at the same time talented faces. Well-done!

For those who want to read more, here's a rundown of all 18 actors:(spoilers!)

Sebastian Weber: Silent waters are deep! Memorize his "Flower garden" monologue, you can win any woman's heart with this one.

Anna Böger: A hell of a woman! Every time she opens her mouth, you can't help but laugh and feel good. Listen how she pronounces "asshole" and calls the pink shirt guy a "Bürscherl"!

Felix Hellmann: The "Bürscherl" from above is fun to watch. The inconvenient truth is that there are too many of those guys around. His looks somewhat reminded me of Flo Weber of "Sportfreunde Stiller".

Katharina Schubert: This woman has everything: love, hope, despair, beauty. Her "do you want children" scene is a classic. A great actress of whom we will hear again, no doubt.

David Baalcke: Now is this guy a loser or not? Almost as authentic as Paul Giamatti in "Sideways". I hope this is NOT method acting.

Julia Koschitz: The "good looking" woman in the circle. Julia used to play theater in my hometown, kudos! I think she will appear in many TV series to come.

Martin Butzke: The revolutionary guy catches the cutest and most conventional woman in the end. Would you like to share a taxi with this guy?

Kathrin von Steinburg: She gave a stunning performance in "Tatort" last year. Her trance-like performance in this movie is no less. SEE her beautiful face and HEAR her dirty laugh. The best scene in the movie belongs to her.

Matthias Bundschuh: I know these "write down everything"-guys back from school. I'm not sure whether the hot blond got her allergic reaction because of him or his cat. Matthias' portrayal of such a chicken is outstanding.

Mediha Cetin: The sister-in-law of my ex-girl-friend was the same talker like her. The day I met her was the only day in my life I needed tranquilizers, so bad remembrances here.

Thomas Limpinsel: The "nice and desperate guy" in the circle. Limpinsel has a comical talent that is way better than most so-called "comedians" on TV.

Lisa Wagner: The victim of Sebastian's "flower garden" metaphor. Lisa's face is funny and full of melancholy, her story made me feel good and sad at the same time, wow!

Oliver Bürgin: The "good looking" man in the circle. No wonder he catches Julia in the end. These two really fit together. I think he will appear in many TV series to come.

Julia Heinze: The "cute, conventional" woman. I hope she won't be underrated: Julia's face changes from naive to hurt to furious are great!

Stephan Zinner: The "nature boy" from Partenkirchen likes cooking, eating – and good sex. Watch the body language between him and the hot blond! Zinner usually plays CSU politician Söder on stage!

Anja Klawun: The "bargain girl" has some good moments, but, beg your pardon, fails (like most actors) in playing a drunk on screen.

Christian Pfeil: Plays the arrogant and narcissistic guy. Couldn't believe that this very actor owns two art-house cinemas in Munich.

Tanja Schleiff: Plays the girl who sleeps with every man around. I'm sure many male visitors will go for her. I have heard she can do dramatic roles as well, so I'm curious.

It's not hard to imagine what the main problem for a screenwriter is who wants to have 18 equally well written characters with about the same amount of screen time in a movie that last around 90 minutes. It's almost impossible not to fall back on stereotypes and that is also what writer-director Ralf Westhoff does here. Very few of the characters can be recognized as people that you and me know in real life, many of them are just characterized with two or three attributes and stay vague. I am aware of that but still think that "Shoppen" is successful, namely that it accomplishes just what it wants to. It is a film with very well written dialogue, extremely good acting and a film that made me laugh out loud really often. I don't think that this film wants to make a deep going analysis of loneliness in our modern society, or that it wants to be moral commentary on speed-dating. It's a movie about something that exists and people and their motivation to use it. Funny and entertaining.

"Shoppen" is a German movie from 2006 (over 10 years old already) and let me start by saying that this work by writer and director Ralf Westhoff is one of my favorite German movies of all time. It is so refreshing to see an actually funny German comedy in the face of all the weak stuff by the likes of Schweighöfer, M'Barek etc. And the best is that the depth and drama that this one here offers feels also very authentic all the time. I believe these 90 minutes here are a bit of a defining film about relationships, single status and life in the big city. I may be a bit biased about this movie I can's deny as this is I think the very first film i watched on my own at the theater and hundreds should follow, probably thousands at some point. Anyway, this is the story here of almost 20 singles living in the Munich area who go to a speed dating event. In the first 10-15 minutes we see scenes with the characters in order to understand a bit who they are and what their lives are like at this very moment. Then the dating part begins and it goes on for an hour perhaps before we find out eventually what happens afterward between the characters, who may get together with whom and what their approach to a new relationship may look like.

Anyway, this film is all but empty romance or comedy entertainment. It feels extremely authentic and I never had the impression during these 1.5 hours that I was actually watching characters in roles. It is a bit sad to see that Westhoff makes a new film only every five years or so, but I have to live with that I guess. In terms of the cast here, the most known members are probably Schubert and Koschitz, who also worked with Westhoff on other occasions. Now I will not go into detail about the speed dating part in particular as it basically is the entire movie. Watch it for yourself, you really should. I just personally think that it was a really difficult challenge to make the audience interested in all these characters as each and every one of them really does not have a huge deal of screen time and we also only know very basic stuff about them aside from the fact that they are all single. It is an extremely dialog-driven film of course too and this is another big challenge to make the conversations, as quick as they are, interesting to the viewers and not just random empty hullabaloo. I think Westhoff succeeded magnificently with this and it is such an interesting watch that never gets uninspired ever. Some of the characters are great fun, some are depressed and the rest is in-between somewhere. One of the main reasons of this film is because of how flawed everybody is. This is not a film with the intention to make people like everybody of these characters. It probably all depends on your very own background who you prefer, the brutally honest, the whiny, the sterile, the professionals... etc. It is also not a film that is about forced happy endings or anything. More conflicts will arise for sure and this for example became obvious from the final conversation between the cook and the woman he meets. As a whole, I think this is an absolute must-see. It is very funny, very touching, very relevant and just very accurate in terms of dating culture in the 21st century. Also a great watch for couples I think, especially on Valentine's Day today. Oh yeah the soundtrack is fun too. What are you waiting for? Go see it, if you still have a chance to. Now.

Even though I tried to avoid German films recently, positive reviews lured me into renting this one. There I stand fooled again by German media which has been hyping domestic flicks over and over again. To me it is no wonder no one abroad wants to see this crap. The idea to make this film is no idea at all (I guess some fool read a women's magazine article about speed-dating). In short: The characters (which are none), dialogue and content are so stunningly trivial, trite and cliché-ridden, I continued watching because I could hardly believe what I saw. BTW to call the flat theses mechanically delivered by the figures (certainly from the aforementioned magazines) dialogue, would be simply incorrect. Acting is so over-the-top, I can't remember worse than that on screen in a long time. You have to guess the director had/has no clue at all. Amazingly distributors and producers around the country are still wondering why German films (with rare exceptions) generate no interest world-wide. Why? Because it's waste of time and money.