Barefoot (2005)

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Well, the title says it all; NIck is a sore looser, by some strange and uneventful coincidences, he starts to work in a psychic hospital as clerk/janitor and because of his lack of tact, gets fired after a few minutes. By coincidence, he stumbles upon a patient about to commit suicide and save her life. The nut girl decides to follow him, they hit the road and go on adventures together... to fall in love and of course, to go meet Nick's family who's very rich and where his brother and his step dad are more than scornful, you see the portrait eh?Seriously, this history is as exciting as if I would tell you the day I get my thumb caught in a bottle of Dr Pepper, the ONLY POSSIBLE WAY you could like this movie is if you're an hopeless romantic or have this huge crush for tacky/ultra cheesy movie. I saw it in my German class and got angrier by the mediocrity of the movie than by the fact that I struggled to understand dialogues.I highly suggest you not waste your precious time of your precious and short life in front of this absolutely mediocre scenario without any interests except if you love over romantic and tacky movie.

A comedy at first sight, but later it becomes deeper. In essence it is a story of two unlikely characters forced by circumstances to spend several days together. There's Nick, a handsome thirty-some and a "bad boy" with an ego that makes it impossible for him to maintain a steady job, who's also a bit of a womanizer. On the other hand, there's Leila, a good-hearted, naive girl whose mother had kept her isolated at home for years, so that after her mother's death, at 19, she cannot function in society and is put into a mental asylum.When Nick gets a job as a janitor in said mental asylum, he happens to save Leila from committing suicide, and since that moment she attaches herself to him, escapes the asylum and stalks him home. Nick, with enough of his own problems, is now forced to take care of Leila, who, to his outrage, will simply not leave him alone for a single second.Amusement comes mostly from Leila's lack of understanding of the outside world, resulting in her behaving strangely, and also providing a mirror through which we can see the ironies of our society.A perfect contrast of Leila's naiveté and Nick's cynicism, of Leila's innocence and Nick's lack of respect for laws and morals, make the two characters a pair that can barely get along at first... but can also learn a lot from each other.A film that is likely to make you laugh, cry, and, at least for a moment, shift your view of what is truly important in life.

The euro movies are usually bad i was surprised this one was so grate i like the story the music its just incredible and everyone should see it!!!! its a lovely movie :)The idea of a girl who is mentally sick and falls in love with a guy is grate i like it it was very original and shot well.The comedy is very unique and fits right in the movie really showing that mentally ill girl in a very nice sunny kind of way that really goes right in your heart I'm gonna recommend the movie to others as well its a German Jewel and its something everyone should watch!!!!!!! The acting was grate i really felt that love between them and that maked me happy and the ending is nice :)

Having seen "Barfuß" today with a friend of mine, I have to say that in many ways it is better than I expected it to be.Til Schweiger gives a remarkably good performance and obviously his ability in directing has improved since his last major effort "Der Eisbär". Johanna Wokalek is THE reason to see the film, though, and fortunately Schweiger knows this pulls himself back and gives her the ability to shine. Her performance of Leila is sweet and touching and she manages to provide the movie with a light touch as well as a necessary seriousness.From the get-go it is clear that this movie is not supposed to be a real drama but rather a tender and poetic fairy-tale. It was important to stage it that way, because if the film had focused too much of the realistic aspect (Leila's handicap and Nick's downfall from his family background) it would easily have failed. This way, it walks a very fine line between comedy and drama quite well.However, I have some major quibbles with the finished product. First, I think the movie cannot really make up its mind, which genre it wants to belong to, usually I like genre-bastards but this movie pretends to be a road movie for so long, that once it gets done with the road movie one wonders when the movie will finally be over.Also, there is one moment in the story, when the movie steps over the above mentioned fine line between comedy and drama too much. I won't mention details but when the protagonists finally reach the wedding of Nick's brother, which is supposedly the end of their trip together, they both humiliate themselves at the party very much. I admit that I get uncomfortable easily when characters I like humiliate themselves, but to me this part was pretty hard to take, as I just wished for Leila and Nick to get out of there as quickly as possible, knowing they would not be able to leave just like that. (on the plus side, I guess it shows, that Scheiger is capable of making us feel for the characters, though).Schweiger has mentioned often, that this movie has been really dear to his heart from the beginning and watching the film one can see this clearly. I believe he also wanted this to be a film that he made with a lot of friends and people he admired. Thus many German movie and TV stars such as Jürgen Vogel, Michael Gwisdek, Armin Rohde, Markus Maria Profitlich, et al. appear in cameos. While I usually enjoy a little game of "spot the celebrity", in this particular rather sweet and touching story it seemed out of place and became quite annoying to me after a while to see all kinds of stars (what was Axel Stein doing there, by the way?) having one funny moment to share.Oh, and one last criticism: After "Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" ("The Edukators") this is the second German movie in a short while to use Leonard Cohen's "Halleluyah" in its soundtrack. While I really love the song, to me in movie history it will always be connected with "Shrek". So PLEASE you German filmmakers everywhere: come up with something new or original if you want to illustrate a bittersweet moment. It really tears the viewer out of the context and seems like a cheap rip-off.These points aside, "Barfuß" is a very fine movie, beautiful to look at, moving and with wonderful actors in it.