NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN Review - Javi's Take

NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN

Directed by: Katrin Gebbe

Written by: Katrin Gebbe

Starring: Julius Feldmeier, Sacha Alexander Gersack, Annika Kuhl, and Swantje Kohn

Synopsis: When a homeless teenager goes to live with a family, things turn increasingly violent.

We originally ran a review for this movie by Jonesy during Fantastic Fest 2013. You can check out her review here. 

Humanity can be as compassionate as it can be cruel, and NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN exemplifies this to a terrifying extreme. The story deals with Tore, a homeless teenager that's part of the Jesus Freaks, a punk-Christian group in Hamburg. He comes across a family who broke down on the road and jumps their car through the power of prayer. Eventually, he moves in with this family, with this arrangement becoming slowly but surely more violent and abusive.

Presenting Tore as a Christian almost to a fault and Benno, as the abusive patriarch who is always mocking Tore's religion would seemingly make this movie a very black and white movie showing you the righteous religious teen against the evil man. The reality is that while there is a clear villain in the movie, the protagonist is no angel. Torne is so insanely adherent to his faith that it can be frustrating seeing him go through life when his beliefs end up causing emotional and bodily harm.

Make no mistake, this is a very, very hard movie to watch. The extent of the cruelty bestowed on Tore is sickening and relentless. You're in constant fear of something violent happening to him. Not only that, but then he befriends the stepdaughter, Sanny, who is sexually abused by her stepfather, and Tore becomes single-minded in his pursuit of "saving" her. Th

To say that this movie is well-acted is an understatement. The leads just completely melt into the character, especially Feldmeier (Tore), whose facial expression just speak volumes and bring so much depth to many scenes of the movie.  It's definitely a movie that should be seen a couple of times at least to appreciate the acting.

NOTHING CAN HAPPEN is a hard movie to watch. It could not be faulted if anyone decides to skip it due to the violence, but what's interesting about this movie is that as dire it is, it's also a beautiful story about conviction and faith.


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