Protraph Lack of good storyline.

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Christy Leskovar "Two Lives" is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I watched it on Netflix. It's a German movie that takes place in Norway shortly after reunification of Germany. Part of the story is about a woman, played by Liv Ullman, who fell in love with a German soldier during the war and they had a daughter. After the war, such women were shunned and the children sent to orphanages in Germany. To say more would give away too much. It's a masterfully written screenplay about fictional people, but such events did happen. One small part I could have skipped, otherwise an excellent portrayal of a sobering story. It's the kind of movie where you watch all the credits roll by at the end because you can't turn it off.

samkan The acting in TWO LIVES is top notch, not to mention the beautiful Liv Ulmann playing-get this-a great-grandmother superbly. The film is based on true events; i.e., the Nazi taking of Nordic infants to replenish Aryan blood with the post-war pack of returned children infiltrated with communist spies. The best scenes are in the middle of the film when we squirm and cringe watching Juliene Krohler struggling to keep her deception afloat. Sven Nodrin is also great as the husband suspending disbelief to keep his marriage afloat. Notwithstanding, the attempts to persuade us to forgive Katrine's deceit arrive too late in the film and the violence at the end, in hindsight, appears unnecessary to achieve TWO LIVES' ends. More tragic effect is actually achieved by the scene of Ullmann's empty eyes staring through the window. I forgive the shortcomings at the end of the movie, however, for the suspense and intrigue generated.

bevin_brett Sadly the plot falls apart. The more you understand what has happened, the less plausible it is.The seaside, buildings, mountains, etc. make for gorgeous background.The characters are portrayed with depth and sympathy. Each deals appropriately with the stresses that they are under, and you can understand their actions.The plot moves a long at a good pace, with flashbacks becoming clearer as the movie progresses.But sadly when all is revealed, the plot has more holes than Romeo and Juliet. Coincidences, unlucky timing, unrealistic actions by professionals, ... it has them all.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) Director Georg Maas and co-director Judith Kaufmann are far from big names in the movie industry, even here in Germany. So I was a bit surprised when their most recent project "Zwei Leben" ("Two Lives") was selected as the official submission to the Academy for this year's foreign language Oscar instead of "Oh Boy", the big winner from this year's national film awards. After watching "Zwei Leben" the other day, I can totally see why. Apart from Köhler's excellent performance, statistics are on her side as well. In the last 15 years several films starring her as a lead character made quite some waves abroad. "Aimée & Jaguar" managed a foreign language nomination at the Golden Globes, "Downfall", in which she played the Eva Braun to Bruno Ganz' Adolf Hitler was Oscar-nominated and Nowhere in Africa even won the Foreign Language Oscar ten years ago. Could this be her next coup?We get to see flashbacks, but most of the film takes place in 1990, right after the fall of the Berlin Wall and illustrates besides the personal fate of the central character and everybody close to her, also the historic phenomenon of the "Lebensborn"-generation. This describes Aryan-looking children from German-occupied areas during World War II who were abducted to Germany for breeding purposes. When the War ended, many of these were on their own trying to make it back home and did not make it. Köhler does not play one of these children. She plays a Stasi informant who was planted in Norway for spying purposes and assumed the identity of Katrine Evensen, one of the aforementioned "Lebensborn"-children. At first, there was nobody but her mother, but not much later she marries under her new identity and gives birth to a daughter. Decades later she is still living the family life under her wrong identity. However, a recent investigation on possible compensation for the "Lebensborn"-children makes her facade crumble more and more, while we find out what happened to the real Katrine Evensen.This film is a thrill-ride for over 90 minutes as well as an important history lesson on an issue which is not really known to many. I remember our curricula at school packed with material about the Nazis and World War II, but I'm surprised this was never included at all. It's shaping up to be an interesting year for the foreign language Oscar. The Saudi-Arabian entry is nothing short of magnificent either and if Denmark submits Mikkelsen's "Jagten", it could be one of the best group of nominees in years. Anyway, back to "Zwei Leben", besides Köhler's great work, also almost the whole supporting cast delivers convincing portrayals. Multiple Oscar-nominee Liv Ullmann is back after a break of many years and nails her scenes just like Nordin, Bache-Wiig and the duo of actors who portray the GDR-shadows from the past coming back to haunt Köhler's character. If there is anything I would criticize it was Ken Duken's portrayal. I've seen quite a few of his works and I just don't think he's a great actor at all, sadly. I'm yet to see a performance where he really becomes the character, just like the ladies do in this one, and the thick beard he spots in this one can't convince me. But that's really just a very minor deduction. I recommend this film a lot, not only to Norwegians and Germans, but also to everybody else. It's a deeply moving piece highlighted by Juliane Köhler's multi-layered portrayal of a victim-offender character and I truly hope it can make the nomination.