The Popcorn Reel Film Review: "Yella" (Cinema Guild)

"Yella", which opens today at the Cinema Village in New York City, is for much of the time an intriguing mystery thriller surrounding a businesswoman who escapes from her abusive husband and becomes the accomplice to a businessman trying to swindle money out of business he is negotiating with. Christian Petzold's film however, lets itself down at one key moment, ultimately tarnishing the previous 80-plus minutes. Mr. Petzold directs this pedestrian affair ably and well, but we are left feeling that we have been cheated.

Perhaps the screenplay by Mr. Petzold and Simone Baer didn't have a strong closing, but one would have preferred a more open-ended film, literally leaving the audience in limbo, much like John Sayles' film "Limbo" did a few years ago. The film's title character is played by Stuttgart's Nina Hoss, who lends a peaceful beauty and diligence to her industrious character, a persona tormented but triumphant in the wake of her husband from whom she is estranged. Ben, the tormentor, is relentless in his menace. As played by Hinnerk Schonemann, Ben is a weak man, camouflaging his deficiencies and insecurities in violence against Yella. He is a lingering presence in the film, and Mr. Petzold directs him almost as a figment of the audience's imagination as well as Yella's. He is apparition like, but his threatening aura is never far from the surface of the film. Yella and Ben will have a confrontation that will turn around the nature and direction of the film, not unlike the way Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" made an abrupt turn.

But there are no shower murders here. In fact, "Yella" contains one or two scenes of violence that would make most American-made PG-13 rated films chuckle harmlessly.

The second portion of the story follows Yella, newly escaped to a new German city. She misses her family and her new alliance with the handsome and equally mysterious businessman Philipp (Devid Striesow) who needs money -- a lot of it. Yella and Philipp seem to belong together -- at home together. They form a near-perfect business partnership, a non-violent Bonnie and Clyde who swindle, chuckle and have secret code language during business negotiations. This portion of "Yella" is nicely executed, offering a nice comedic respite from an otherwise monochromatic visual experience -- or at least a muted cinematography, as engineered by Hans Fromm, who find a way to make the film so visually tranquil that you feel that you might hear someone's heartbeat, namely the film's title character.

"Yella" works very well for a while, but it's just too bad that the film used an oft-tried trick that seems very much beneath the good intentions of its filmmakers.

"Yella" opened today at the Cinema Village in New York City. The film is not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. "Yella" is in the German language with English subtitles. The film's duration is one hour and 29 minutes.

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