A One Mann’s Movies review of “Two To One” (2025).
Original Title: Zwei zu eins.
“Two For One” is a German language film out in selected UK cinemas this week. It’s difficult to find where it’s playing since typing “Two For One UK Cinemas” into Google gives you nothing but Meerkat Movies offers! But if you search for “Zwei zu eins UK Cinema” you will have more luck…. it’s showing in some selected Picturehouse cinemas and a few other independant cinemas.
It’s a real oddity of a heist movie, based – loosely – on a true story, where the ‘prize’ appears, at first, to be worth absolutely nothing at all.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“Two To One” Plot:
It’s July 1990 in a border town in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Germany as we knew it. In the financial approach to unification, the old East German currency – Mark der DDR – was being exchanged for the new German Deutsche Mark. As a bit of a jape, the headstrong Maren (Sandra Hüller), her boyfriend Robert (Max Riemelt) and the third leg in an uncomfortable love triangle, newly returned Volker (Ronald Zehrfeld) steal sackfulls of the old currency from the underground storage vault where they are being left to rot. But it turns out that the useless paper money might not be as useless as first thought.
Certification:
UK: 12A; US: NR. (From the BBFC web site: “Infrequent strong language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Sandra Hüller, Max Riemelt, Ronald Zehrfeld, Ursula Werner, Peter Kurth, Martin Brambach.
Directed by: Natja Brunckhorst.
Written by: Natja Brunckhorst.
Running Time: 1h 56m.
“Two To One” Summary:
Positives:
- In a crowded landscapre for the genre, the premise here was ingenious.
- Sandra Hüller is as brilliant as ever and here very alluring as the magnetically attractive Maren.
- The film requires real attention and intelligence to follow what’s going on.
Negatives:
- Tonally, the film is a bit all over the place.
- For me, the film really lost its way in the final reel.
Review of “Two To One”:
An ingenious premise.
The ‘heist move’ is a genre that you feel has been almost mined to death, from sophisticated hi-tech raids like the “Oceans” films to the grittier Brit-flicks like “King of Thieves“. So it comes as a bit of a surprise to find this German film has found a new angle. It’s a heist of millions that seems to be a victimless crime: it’s a bit like Richard Pryor siphoning off the rounding pence in bank transactions in “Superman 3”: nobody is going to notice the crime or miss the money! Moreover, the people committing the crime, although they know they are being a bit naughty, don’t think they are stealing anything of value. It’s more that the two men in the life of the Bohemian and flighty Maren (Sandra Hüller) are terrified of her zipping off to far flung places (like “Madagascar” and “Haiti”!) in search of adventure and want to keep her grounded with an adventure of her own.
But the film doesn’t make it easy for you. There is no “tell” and all “show”, without introduction to who the characters are and how they interrellate. The crotchety Lunkewitz (see below) for example is ‘introduced’ via a random bucket of cold water at a party, before we ever meet the man (I only clocked this on a second watch!). And trying to decipher the ins-and-outs of the currency transfer rules and regulations requires your full attention. I really liked the intelligence inherent in the film although I can see many viewers thinking…”sorry, I’m just not following all of this”.
But what IS it trying to be?
My main issue with the film was that it seemed to be trying to do too much. The heist and the treatment of the money would have been enough if properly handled and all the avenues explored. But we also get a love triangle between Maren, Robert and Volker, complete with love child, that remains superficial at best. There are also rather clumsy and awkward stabs at communist messaging with the community wanting to do everything for the community instead of profiteering like the nasty capitalist West. Some of this might have come across poorly in the translation of the subtitles, but the dialogie felt clunky and unconvincing.
Sadly, much of the good work in the first half of the film gets undone for me in the final reel. Most heist films have an ‘unravelling’, where a tiny glitch in the plan leads to disaster. And this is no different, involving a character (curiosly uncredited in the cast list) called Bernardo. You can see the issue coming from a very long way off and so it builds to a tense finale. But then, the tonal-random-mood-generator pitches you from high to a very depressing low to a rather ridiculous Hollywood high again. The ending lacked credibility. We learn in the closing titles that the film was “based on a true story”, but it is clear that only the basis of the monetary heist was the true bit. The fictional elements of the story arc should have been better thought through.
Sandra Hüller excels.
The outstanding acting performance for me came from Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller. I’ve only seen her in three of her films: “Munich: The Edge of War“; “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest“, but in each film she’s played very different roles and – whether I liked the films or not – nailed every one of them. I wouldn’t naturally think of Hüller as being a sex symbol that two men would want to sleep with (indeed, in one non-sexual scene, both at the same time with add-ons). But here, Hüller is surprisingly alluring, both in body and in spirit, and she makes it work.
Another role I particularly enjoyed was that of Martin Brambach playing the crotchety apartment owner Lunkewitz. Every neighbourhood has one: the obstroperous glass-half-empty guy who is a general thorn in the side of everyone. Brambach plays him to perfection, even managing to garner your sympathy when his lofty ideals get shattered.
The title?
I also don’t quite understand what the title is meant to imply: other than in relation to the love triangle, which is more of a minor sub-plot.
Monkeys
There is a very funny “monkey” after the end titles that is well worth staying for. It looks like a still picture… until it’s not. In keeping with the intellectual nature of the film, you really have to think about what you have seen and how it relates to the film. Then the penny drops!
Summary Thoughts on “Two To One”
I found this to be a really mixed bag. It has a clever premise and a plot that requires you to really pay attention. But the film is tonally disjointed and went downhill with an ending I just found plain silly.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
At the time of writing, the film is not available on the “Justwatch” database.
Trailer for “Two To One”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV7KY2l–Es.
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