Michael (2011)

79% of critics liked it
(34 reviews)
80% of users liked it
(1,441 ratings)

Michael (Michael Fuith), a seemingly meek insurance agent, has a secret: he's holding 10-year-old Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger) captive in a locked room in his basement. Chronicling a five month period, director Markus Schleinzer reveals a tense portrait of how seemingly mundane lives can hide the… More Michael (Michael Fuith), a seemingly meek insurance agent, has a secret: he's holding 10-year-old Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger) captive in a locked room in his basement. Chronicling a five month period, director Markus Schleinzer reveals a tense portrait of how seemingly mundane lives can hide the darkest secrets. Michael is a masterfully executed study of a monster with rich cinematic detail and unnerving insight. -- (C) Strand

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 38 min.
Directed By: Markus Schleinzer
Written By: Markus Schleinzer
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Feb 15, 2012 Limited
On DVD: May 15, 2012
Studio: Strand Releasing

Critic Reviews

Mark Jenkins, NPR
Like its protagonist, Michael is deliberate and very discreet. It shocks by suggestion, not by display.
Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
A hermetically sealed creep-fest that seems to have no desire to be anything more than just that.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
A well-acted, otherwise tightly scripted movie that builds suspense with a series of unexpected twists and turns.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
This coldly compelling film doesn't try to explain Michael's behavior or analyze his disease. As if doing penance for Michael's sins, it eventually metes out unequivocal punishment, but it is small consolation.
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice
Schleinzer approaches his subject not as an investigator, but as though covering up a crime scene and scrubbing it of anything that might provide insight or empathy or psychological traction.
Alissa Simon, Variety
Illustrating the banality of evil in an impressively controlled and sometimes darkly humorous fashion, Michael takes a coolly nonjudgmental, non-psychological approach to a disturbing topic.
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times
A strange and agonizingly engrossing drama despite its repellent subject.
Donald Clarke, Irish Times
Michael does have undeniable moral purpose. It forces us to ponder the way society chooses - another easy option - to comfortingly reclassify such perpetrators as monsters.
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Haneke without the soul, and if you've seen enough of that man's pictures, you can maybe perceive how unsettling the idea of a soulless Haneke sounds.
Mike Scott, Times-Picayune
Intentionally unnerving from the first moments, it's a hard movie to watch, but it's also fantastically, agonizingly suspenseful.
Philip French, Observer [UK]
Mostly the picture is blank, a credible series of scenes that invite us to make of it what we will.
, Film4
A brave, unavoidably distressing debut from Markus Schleinzer, sensitively acted and directed.
Anton Bitel, Little White Lies
Michael has been forged in the Haneke mould, treating its incendiary material with an aloof, banalising calm and withholding any overt judgment or moral standpoint.
Grant Rollings, Sun Online
I can't recommend anyone shares 90 minutes of their life with Michael.
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
There is a film to be made, grim and explorative, about paedophile abduction. Michael isn't it.
Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
Schleinzer could hardly have chosen a more difficult subject, but he treats it with an unnerving simplicity, shorn of sensationalism or obvious moral cues.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
The film is not merely a chilling insight into the day-to-day banality of evil, but also an unbearably suspenseful and tense drama.
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
Impressively directed and superbly written, this is a powerful and chilling drama with a terrific central performance from Michael Fuith.
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
There are no easy conclusions here - no explanations. Events unfold with a random, even black comic abandon.
Damon Wise, Empire Magazine
As horrifying and hard to watch as you'd expect a paedophile's-eye view of life to be. It's neither sensationalist nor trite, and the questions it asks are intelligent and thoughtful.

Read all 26 critic reviews

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Hassan V

The premise for this film is more fascinating than the film itself. It is well directed and really well acted but it delves no deeper than the shallow end in any of the characters or themes. Everytime you think the film will take a dive in the deep end, it quickly paddles back to the… More
The premise for this film is more fascinating than the film itself. It is well directed and really well acted but it delves no deeper than the shallow end in any of the characters or themes. Everytime you think the film will take a dive in the deep end, it quickly paddles back to the simple idea of the guy with a kid in the basement. The premise is such a complex issue but there is no exploration, just bland presentation. Because of this the minimalist, realist style does not work because the beauty of minimalism is that while you are watching a scene that raises subtle themes your brain is de-constructing the themes from the previous scene, but here I there is nothing to think about because it all surface deep, which makes some of the banality just so dull, especially the final 10 minutes.
Daniel P

Michael is a disturbing but quiet, largely evasive drama involving Michael - a man with a regular job who "keeps to himself", and whom hides in the specially locked and separately wired basement of his house a 10 year-old boy; Michael is a paedophile. The… More
Michael is a disturbing but quiet, largely evasive drama involving Michael - a man with a regular job who "keeps to himself", and whom hides in the specially locked and separately wired basement of his house a 10 year-old boy; Michael is a paedophile. The film shows Michael going about his day-to-day life for five months. He's a fairly private man, by necessity of course, though not without a social life. But in general, he goes to work, comes home, has dinner. Often, we see him interacting with the boy in his basement - giving him chores (the basement is an effect a miniature apartment - outfitted with it's own kitchenette and toilet), reading to him, sharing with him a meal. Aside from one moment of nudity, no sex is shown and is barely implied. The film doesn't try to show horrific abuse, though at the same time it's clear that the boy loathes Michael (there's no Stockholm Syndrome here). The boy has been lied to about his circumstances (we never see how he got there, or if his family are searching for him) but is intelligent enough to realise that he is being manipulated. The film takes a massive shift in the last 20 minutes with an unbearably tense final, prolonged sequence, and director Markus Schleinzer cleverly heightens the tension merely by showing people walking through rooms. The ending is incredibly courageous, refusing to offer any closure, answers, sense of justice or injustice, and provoked a very split reaction in the screening I saw (I was very much reminded of the reaction to the ending of Meek's Cutoff, with which Michael shares a similar detached - but not clinical - tone). However, the main problem I have is one of point. Why does the film exist? What is it trying to say? How am I supposed to feel? For many this was one of the film's virtues and indeed it's refreshing for a film - particular one with this kind of subject matter - to not entertain any usual conventions. The one thing it does show is that even though Michael is a monster, he still has a family that cares for him and whom presumably will have much to "deal" with after the film ends - unusually it will be them you are thinking of, not Michael, not the boy. But for much of the running time I wondered why I was watching it. Not that I was bored, that wouldn't be true - it's very, very well acted, interestingly filmed and edited, and quite gripping. But there just didn't seem to be much reason for the film to exist.