Barbara2012
Barbara (2012)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Smart, solidly grafted, and thoroughly gripping, Barbara offers a deliberately paced, subtly powerful character study.
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Movie Info
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Cast
as Stella
as Barbara
as Andre
as Jörg
as Schütz
as Assistant to Doctor Schulze
as Ward of Nurse Schlösser
as Medical Student
as Medical Student
as Angelo
as Caretaker Bunger
as Waiter in Resort Café
as Young Waitress
as Gerhard
as Pensioner at the Car
as Colleague of Schütz
as Piano Tuner
as Steffi
as Mario
as Angie
as Maria
as Colleague of Schütz
as Andre's Neighbor
as Friedl Schütz
as Friedl's Sister
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Critic Reviews for Barbara
All Critics (77) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (71) | Rotten (6)
It persuades us early on that its aura of political tension and suspicion, its taciturnity, its very strictness of silent observation as it begins, are fostering an intelligent thriller.
Though the film runs a mere 105 minutes, it weighs on viewers like an eternity.
The movie examines the possibility of maintaining one's humanity in a truly oppressive society.
Hoss, wearing her blond hair pulled back tight, and wearing an expression of inscrutable melancholy, gives a performance that doesn't feel like a performance at all.
The occasional ravings of the patients, ringing off the walls in Petzold's measured quiet, provide an appropriate backdrop to the heroine's need for freedom, yet the movie's politics never trump its humanity.
This is well-trod ground for Petzold, but never has it been so fully realized, so palpable, as in "Barbara."
Audience Reviews for Barbara
A subtle romance with a historical context and great performances, blending love and politics in an engaging story that also explores the curious contrast between the vivid landscape of East Germany's countryside and the sad universe the protagonist is forced to live in.
Super Reviewer
The East German secret police had a reputation for brutality in supporting the communist regime. Here within the tranquility of a country setting, the politics surrounding a nurse banished from the big City is disturbing and yet fascinating to behold.
Super Reviewer
Dr. Barbara Wolff(Nina Hoss) has been transferred to a hospital in the provinces in East Germany in 1980 against her wishes. In return, she has no intention of giving her Stasi minder Klaus Schutz(Rainer Bock) nor anybody else the satisfaction of thinking they have won. That extends to not eating with any of her fellow doctors. However, she still has to work with them, as she correctly diagnoses Stella(Jasna Fritzi Bauer), a young woman in trouble with the law, with meningitis, thus greatly impressing Dr. Andre Reiser(Ronald Zehrfeld), one of her colleagues. So instead of sitting around her sparse apartment all day in her bathrobe, Barbara decides to fix her bicycle and go for a day trip in the country which her minders have a problem with when they lose track of her for several hours. First off, Nina Hoss is one of the best actors working today and certainly does not disappoint with her latest performance in "Barbara," succeeding in playing a difficult character. And I also liked how the movie gradually reveals Barbara's backstory while featuring perhaps my favorite scene of the year where Dr. Reiser dissects the Rembrandt painting in his office. That's not to mention all of the random details of life in East Germany that help to complete the picture. Sadly, the story is pure cliche, filled with contrivances, and filed under the city doctor going to the country and being surprised by what she finds.(I've never seen "Doc Hollywood," so I'll go with "Northern Exposure" instead. And I guess this is proof that "House" was shown in Germany.) And with any old plot, it also makes the movie that much more predictable. Of perhaps greater concern is the fact that it muddles the movie's politics, not so much as to which side are you on, but adding a definite grey area that also extends to Barbara's motives in her struggle against being violated.
Super Reviewer
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