Unlikely bank heist "Revanche" ignites Oscar-nominated thriller

"Nothing happened," says Robert (Andreas Lust), a small-town policeman who has just witnessed the tail end of a rare bank robbery.

Over pasta and wine, his curiosity-driven wife, Susanne (Ursula Strauss), carefully prods him to spill the details. He insists there's nothing to tell. She's adamant that bank heists don't happen every day in their village.

In a sense, he's right. The nimble Austrian thriller "Revanche" features what could be the most casual bank robbery in movie history. It seems to happen almost accidentally, barely interrupting the bank's staff as they indulge in phone calls and small talk while a very nervous robber, Alex (Johannes Krisch), waves a gun in their faces.

But in another sense, she's right. The robbery turns out to have huge consequences for the robber, the policeman, his wife and Tamara (Irina Potapenko), a Ukrainian prostitute Alex adores. No one is the same after it happens, and that includes Alex's widowed father, who suffers from dizzy spells and longs for the grave.

The movie opens with a long shot of a glasslike lake, suddenly violated by a splash that turns the surface into circles. It's an apt metaphor for a twist-filled tale that can't help but address basic questions about mortality, infidelity, religion and the hidden dignity of its trapped central characters.

"Don't say anything" becomes almost a mantra, as Alex suppresses knowledge of his affair with Tamara, or Susanne expresses her frustration with a miscarriage, or Robert insists that his involvement with the robbery was unimportant. Secrets drive the story, right down to its shockingly open ending.

Written and directed in a clean, stark style by Gotz Spielmann, this Oscar-nominated film (it lost the foreign-film award to the Japanese "Departures") deserves comparison with grade-A Hitchcock.

The opening scenes focus on a depressingly sleazy Vienna brothel, with an emphasis on rough sex and bankrupt relationships, but as Spielmann moves into the countryside, the film gradually achieves a purity that's quite startling.

Absolutely essential to this change is the work of the actors. Krisch and Strauss bring credibility to the bizarre alliance of Alex and Susanne, Potapenko gives a wonderfully elusive performance as Tamara (what IS she thinking as Alex makes his robbery plans?), while Lust's Robert becomes a walking definition of paralyzing guilt.

John Hartl:

johnhartl@yahoo.com