Jerichow
2008
**
Director: Christian Petzold
Cast: Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Sözer, André Hennicke, Claudia Geisler, Marie Gruber, Knut Berger
Since its publication in 1934, James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice has been adapted to the screen in France, Italy, Hungary and the U.S. Christian Petzold relocates the book to present-day northeastern Germany, where a young man returns from duty in Afghanistan. He lands a job as a driver for a German-Turkish fast food entrepreneur and becomes instantly attracted to the boss' young wife. Bob Rafelson's 1981 adaptation became synonymous with the primal sex scene on the kitchen table. Petzold's version drains this classic tale of lust and violence of any erotic charge or sense of danger. What's left is an uneventful drama about three uninteresting and underdeveloped characters, whose story leads to a bland shaggy dog ending.
