Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Ulmen, Martina Gedeck

"Atomised" tells the story of half brothers, Michael and Bruno. As children, their mother neglected them, leaving them in the care of separate grandparents while she led a carefree, jet-set life. Now ...( read more  read more... )adults, introverted molecular biologist Michael is so wrapped up in his genetic research that he shies away from intimacy, whilst Bruno is a slave to his sexual fantasies. Everything changes when both men, now in their 30s, find love. Michael re-unites with his childhood sweetheart, Annabelle and Bruno meets Christiane who shares and enjoys his sexual obsessions. It seems that luck is finally on their side, but by a cruel twist of fate, both relationships take a different path. Michael and Bruno must decide whether they can handle the changes or return to their lonely lives.

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64% liked it

569 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 53 min.

Directed by: Oskar Roehler

Release Date: February 23, 2006

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Flixster Reviews (162)


  • September 24, 2008
    A depressing, nostalgic thinker - as it had to be, since it's based on the famous novel by Michel Houellebecq. A hybrid of the morbid and the mordant, the decadent and the darkly delicious, which will not necessarily make you happy, but will certainly leave you impressed. Beautif...( read more)ully shot and impressively acted, this is an evocative, though-provoking and frequently moving film, though it's often hard to engage with its unlikeable characters. Always great to watch Franka Potente on screen.
  • October 15, 2007
    The significance of the title becomes most apparent when you sit down and think about it but the strong undercurrent of the theme was diluted by excessively cinematic scenes. Questionable evenness, yes, but hell it was a very entertainin watch. The tits were particularly good.
  • June 23, 2009
    The movie is so poor to tell the story of the book that I read in the reviews. Both Bruno and Michael act like they are caricaturing the characters. The photography and flashy colors are nonsense. The directing is raw. Nothing is well made or designed.
  • February 11, 2009
    Berlin Film Festival 06' Best Actor
  • January 25, 2009
    Irritating but nice.
    HERE A SLIGHT SPOILER COMES: Excellent suicide scene.
  • March 21, 2008
    This is probably the most hilarious and shocking movie I ever saw! I def recommend it.
  • December 15, 2007
    For some odd reason I am just hugely drawn to movies of this calibre. They intrigue me to no end, even though I may only know one actress who...is from one of my favourite philosophical movies. Of course, I'm talking about Franka Potente...aka the Lola in Run Lola Run....which is...( read more) a blatant ploy to make you lot check that movie out as well!

    Regardless, as I watched this film it started out to be something I just wouldn't have expected it to be and I love the fact that it was in its original language with subtitles. I'd rather read than want to listen to some poorly dubbed version [ though most of the time one might want to question the translations ].

    Back to the movie; it's a story about two half-brothers Michael and Bruno. When they were younger, their mother completely ignored them and didn't even let them find out about each other until well they were in early highschool at the latest. Both were left in care of their grandparents while she was into that 'hippy schieze' Bruno always complains about.

    Bruno seems to be an english teacher in highschool who has fallen out of love with his wife and fails time and time again to find someone else to fill that void. Although, after much searching she basically falls into his lap and then the real interesting stuff starts to happen. His returning to 'the clinic' is not uncommon and he is always invited back there with all the lithium he wants with basically open arms from the nurses and Dr Schafer.

    Michael is one of those really silent and extremely brilliant people who grows up to become molecular biologist who is still socially awkward after all those years. One day he leaves his work in Germany for a tenure and wants to return back to Ireland where he almost finished his other work. During this time he receives notice of his grandmother's grave having to be moved and coincidentally runs into his childhood sweetheart whose letters he had just read earlier.

    It's interesting how something so sad can become endearing and even funny at some parts. All the actors do a wonderful job fulfulling the roles of these characters that become so believable that we can't help but want to help them out in some way.
  • October 29, 2007
    a very precise drama with good acting and many interesting plot turns
  • August 22, 2007
    Je viens juste de terminer le livre de Houellebecq, donc je peux pas éviter de comparer les deux. Premièrement, j'ai trouvé que c'était un bon film. Les acteurs sont biens, le scénario est cool, etc. Côté divertissement, c'est très respectable. Le problème, c'est que le réalisate...( read more)ur a délaissé toute la profondeur du personnage de Michel pour en faire un simple geek des maths qui affiche constamment un sourire un peu stupide. La fin est également très décevante. C'est dommage, car du côté du personnage de Bruno, l'adaptation est parfaite. C'est donc disons une semi-déception, mais ça reste un bon film, surtout si vous n'avez pas lu le livre.
  • July 28, 2007
    An extra half star for the perfomence of Christian Ulmen. However this movie is the definition of an extremely pathetic german movie trying to critisize society in a blatant and unsubtle manner.

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