Once you get the first ten views of the mountains and sumptuous lakes and surrounding sights near Salzburg, you realize that you're stuck in a movie with no plot, just an idea that really goes nowhere. The story (what there is) deals with research surrounding the existence regarding a book of photographs of Austrian mountain lakes and the disappearance of a bookshop owner. American tourist Barry Newman is secretly on assignment to find out what happened to him, encountering his wife (Anna Karina) and her brother (Klaus Maria Brandauer), and threatened by several sinister looking men obviously determined to scare him away.
Best known for TV's "Petrocelli", Newman doesn't have any big screen magnetism, and certainly isn't aided by this messy story with a ridiculously convoluted structure that a straight path through the Alps couldn't fix. Shoddy camera work makes scenes focusing on all of this local beauty seem pointless, and the overbearing music doesn't help either. The film never successfully develops any of the major characters, and like most cold war dramas, tries to fool the audience into thinking that this is intelligent which only expresses the pretentiousness of its script and direction. Far too many minor roles adds far too many extra ingredients into the generic stew and leads the viewer to have a metaphorical stomach ache as that stew turns into an inedible goulash.
Best known for TV's "Petrocelli", Newman doesn't have any big screen magnetism, and certainly isn't aided by this messy story with a ridiculously convoluted structure that a straight path through the Alps couldn't fix. Shoddy camera work makes scenes focusing on all of this local beauty seem pointless, and the overbearing music doesn't help either. The film never successfully develops any of the major characters, and like most cold war dramas, tries to fool the audience into thinking that this is intelligent which only expresses the pretentiousness of its script and direction. Far too many minor roles adds far too many extra ingredients into the generic stew and leads the viewer to have a metaphorical stomach ache as that stew turns into an inedible goulash.