littlemisshaywood This is well worth the mere 1hr 40 minutes it takes to watch.Beautifully, beautifully shot with some inspired mise en scene it has a solid plot and a good twist. With many a scene I found myself on the edge of my seat...it has a marvellously twisted and sullen mood to it.I also have to commend August Diehl, who takes a magnificent role as the young rookie cop Marc Schrader. As the film progresses you can actually see the horrors he's facing taking their toll in his gradual physical and mental deterioration. But there are strong performances all around, especially Christian Redl as the jaded Chief Inspector Minks.A gritty and gorgeously visual thriller that I can recommend to anyone.

Mitch-93 If David Fincher's SE7EN was a mystery shot through the prism of 70s American crime films, then Robert Schwentke's TATTOO is a mystery shot through the prism of 70's European art films. The comparisons are inescapable, it shares SE7EN's dark look, dual detectives, mid-point chase and "something in a box" as well as its meticulous, exacting direction, but it is a very different film with very different thematic agendas. This German film about a secret market in skin and its thematic concerns of guilt, conformity, identity, violence and heritage suggest obvious connections to the Third Reich and the current crisis of east/west reintegration of culture. This rich thematic tapestry is held together by one of the most precise, stylish and icily dreamlike directorial debuts to be seen in decades. Shades of Antonioni and Cronenberg, as well as Tourneur and Hitchcock inform a style which is never imitative and truly hypnotic. Strong, understated performances ground the film, which stumbles only in a pre-climax exposition scene that feels shoe-horned in, for until that point, every piece of information is earned and visually realized. Schwentke is a director to watch; provocative, thoughtful and clearly in love with the art of cinema.

maria-62 Lynn is a woman with a very delicate and exclusive japanese tattoo on her body. The art and class of the tattoo is so fine that a collector pays enormous amounts of money to obtain the skin art. That means ripping it of the living body in Lynn's case.This is a German crime-movie about two cops (and not the ordinary ones) solving the mystery of the 12 missing bodies/tattoos. Who is the collector, and how can they get in touch with him?The estethic of the movie is beautiful if you ask me. Though it is very in-your-face and raw to some people I can belive. Flames of fire and blood is the theme in contrast to stiff, clean German architecture.I enjoyed this movie a lot and it was althrough an exiting piece of art./Maria

phaze2 Normally I am not the kind of person to get mad about a movie. I either think abuot it as good entertainment - and that's it - or as not worth viewing, well, there go ? 8,-. But this film managed to almost make me scream in pain. If it was just plain bad I wouldn't bother to write this comment. But indeed it had its moments. In fact it was partly brilliant. As the first movie I know it managed to combine some of the best elements of genuine german film-making and big Hollywood cinema. There may be some minor flaws in the storyline, including the fact that one can guess quite early who the real antagonist is. But these are well compensated by a dense storyline, credible characters and a nice amount of gore ^_^ . So much potential. And then... THIS ENDING ?! Did Schwentke run out of money? Brain? Or both? Maybe I am just too dumb to get it, but I felt just unsatisfied and betrayed. And according to the reaction of my friends and the other viewers I was not alone. But anyways, 'trakl' may be right - this film might change the whole way of german film-making in a positive way. Let's hope for the best.