Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

As a German, I am quite proud of movies from my native country. Sure, German films aren't as successful as American or French films, nor did they revolutionized a specific genre, like the Italian spaghetti-westerns, but compared to many countries, German movies have high production values. So, naturally, let me review the worst German film I have seen.Blueprint is a drama, directed by Rolf Schübel, based on a novel written by Charlotte Kerner, by the same name. The film is about cloning, and which struggles someone has to face, when being the perfect clone of another person. The main character, Iris Sellin (played by Franka Potente) is a famous and successful pianist, who has multiple sclerosis. To prevent her from dying, she decides to take part in a scientific experiment, which makes her able to clone herself, to let her piano talent transport to her clone (just don't ask). After 13 years her clone, Siri (oh, how very creative), finds out that she isn't a normal, individual child, but rather a cloned, younger version of her mother (because she couldn't figure that out earlier, based on her facial features, her piano talent without learning and that her name is just her mother's name in reverse). The plot is very predictable, pseudo-dramatic, pseudo-tragic and pseudo-society-critical. There are also too many sub-plots, pointless characters and plot-holes.The acting in Blueprint is just terrible! Franka Potente both plays Iris and adult Siri. Even if the movie is supposed to be a drama, Potente is just emotionless all the time. Ullrich Thomsen, who plays the scientists, who clones Iris, also has a very boring and pointless role. However, it's the character Greg Lucas (who doesn't even appear in the novel), played by Hilmir Snær Guðnason, that annoys me the most. Terrible acting, stupid dialog and no significance to the plot whatsoever, contribute to one of the worst characters I have ever seen in a movie.In total, this was one of the worst films I have ever seen. It isn't even bad in a funny kind of way, so it doesn't even qualify as fun trash. A boring, nonsensical story, with amateur acting and idiotic characters. It tries too hard, to be intelligent or deep, but fails to deliver. 1/10

The premise interests me, and Potente is a great actress. But it was a very disappointing film. The concept, overly simple, the sci-fi element is toned down as much as possible, and while it tries to focus on the idea that the clone would reach a point in life where it wanted to be it's own person, the concept has been done before, and far far better than this.The clone's rebelling in this film is pathetic, the dynamic of the relationships is poor. There is no philosophical element to the film.All the characters are frightfully shallow, even the 'mother' and 'daughter' characters. I haven't read the original novel, but the film has no depth at all. Siri has no personality, so the idea that she wanted to be herself instead of her 'mother' doesn't come across well at all, and while Potente actually does a decent performance, the direction, script and aimless flashbacks say very little in a long amount of time. I've seen short films say with this the premise in a few minutes than this film did in just under two hours.For anyone that wants to watch a more fleshed out, recent, full-length film with the same premise. Never Let Me Go (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334260/) might be a better choice.

I think that the previous commenter was on something because the issue of the wig or of the "wax model" of Franka Potente are both ludicrous, and do not exist in the film. Franka is fantastic in her dual role, displaying an emotional range that was both understated and wholly believable. The most interesting and daring aspect of the film was the fact that it did not delve into being a straight-up sci-fi flick. The futuristic aspects were subtle and well-induced to the world of the film. The pop songs that bookend the film reek of cheese but beyond that this is a great film that is worth seeing, if you can find it. I had to get it on Japanese import but it was well worth it. Franka Potente is the cat's meow.

The subject certainly is interesting, the plot has a solid pace. It's not all that often you see an actor/actress play the piano herself, on screen (save for the close-up in real difficult pieces), and come across as actually believable. Franka Potente does, and for both that and the plot I'd have like to give this one a vote of 8. But...Unfortunately, the make-up department and the special effects crew committed some major crimes of negligence. First, the hair-do of supporting actress Katja Studt playing her role at an advanced age are almost _unbelievably_ bad. It really looks as if someone just jumped into a wig shop on their way to some other, more important business, and took the first one they saw without ever even thinking about how it'd look on a freckled redhead like her. I've seen carnival wigs look more believable than that one.The other major downfall is an overwhelmingly obvious wax puppet of Franka Potente in a scene where both of her personae are on screen at the same time. I found it looked un-natural enough that it managed to drop the whole scene dead in its tracks. Couldn't help but stare at that puppet instead of paying attention to the movie itself.Let-downs like that invoke the feeling you're watching a massively under-financed B-movie or student production. If you're a fan of Franka Potente and can tolerate some bad craft work, you'll quite probably like this movie a lot. I didn't.