Who would have thought that these old regional trains with the smoky six-seater compartments still run between Berlin and Magdeburg? That’s not what “Black Box” is about at all, but it doesn’t really matter in this last and rather trivial “police call” of the season.
In the regional train on the way to Magdeburg, Adam Dahl (Eloi Christ) and his friend review the past party weekend in Berlin, everything seems to be in the best of order. When a stranger enters the compartment, talking loudly on the phone, the mood changes from one second to the next: Adam freezes and then, without warning, smashes the stranger’s skull in with a rescue hammer.
When Magdeburg detective Brasch (Claudia Michelsen) arrives at the crime scene, she is presented with a picture of horror that no one can explain. Not even the obvious culprit, because Adam says he has no idea why he brutally killed the stranger. While Brasch’s boss Lemp (Felix Vörtler) is convinced that Adam is only pretending to be clueless, the investigator believes the young man and digs deep into his story. The lines between professional police work and coming to terms with one’s own traumata soon become blurred – because Brasch has had to work through a lot herself since her last disturbing case.
“Black Box” wants to focus on the incomprehensibility of our brain and the shoals (formed by childhood) that lie hidden in every human being – some less deep, some deeper, keyword trauma.
There’s plenty of that. To continue the previous point directly: The emphasis in this crime thriller is on “want”, because “Black Box” mainly throws around psychological terms without really delivering much substance. One reason for this is the unconvincing cast.
The motif twist at the end is successful and shows that the problem lies more in the execution and not in the script.
5 out of 10 points. “Black Box” has all the ingredients for an exciting case, but unfortunately the crime story lacks any sensitivity in its narration. And that’s a real knockout factor in a crime thriller that relies so heavily on the psyche.
