Dir: Timm Kröger | Cast: Jan Bülow, Olivia Ross, Hanns Zischler & Gottfried Breitfuss | Germany Fantasy Thriller 118′
Timm’s Kröger’s seductive but rather arcane neo-noir envelops us in intrigue and sublime black and white images in the Swiss mountains where a German post graduate student is attending a physics conference in the early 1960s. Inveigled into a string of mysterious medics he falls for a charismatic pianist called Karin and witnesses a series of grisly murders. A lofty Hitchcockian and Mahleresque score heightens the tension, goading the complex plot forward – something to do with Cold War conspiracies and radioactivity – and leading us to expect more than is actually delivered. Best known for shooting The Trouble with Being Born, Kroger’s latest foray into directing, and scriptwriting alongside Roderick Warich, is certainly ambitious. The Universal Theory is a bewildering film to fathom out, but one that looks and sounds absolutely terrific.Certainly worth a watch. Let me know if you work it all out @MeredithTaylor
IN UK & IRISH CINEMAS FROM FRIDAY 13 DECEMBER