Review of Tough Enough

Introduction

A teenager walks down the street, into a police station and asks for Mr. Gerber. He`s not in, but the teenager decides to wait. Gerber shows up and, noticing the blood on Michael`s trainer, asks him what happened. And, in flashback, he does.

Michael Polischka lives with his mother in her boyfriend Klaus`s apartment in the rich suburb of Zehlendorf in Berlin, but when he dumps her and forces them to move out, they can only afford to live in the rough district of Neukölln. Unused to such an environment and the largely immigrant populace, Michael quickly finds himself on the end of a beating by Erol`s gang, who threaten to repeat the treatment if he doesn`t bring them money and a cell phone. Michael learns to take care of himself and, because he has `an honest face`, is taken under the wing of local crime lord, Hamal and begins to work for him as a drug dealer. Although happy to have an income and protection, Michael soon finds himself out of his depth.

Video

Apparently shot in Neukölln, the film looks extremely realistic, with de-saturated and muted colours. However, the picture is let down by significant aliasing, some moiré and compression artefacts.

Audio

You have the options of Dolby Digital German 5.1 or 2.0 Stereo. I chose the 5.1, but it was immediately evident that something was wrong, as the dialogue and music were coming from behind me, with ambient sounds from the centre channel! If, as it appears, the 5.1 has been mixed `backwards`, I hope it`s just with this review disc and not with the retail version. I wouldn`t bet on it though. The stereo track is fine, presenting the sound well. The subtitles are good, although I did notice a couple of errors: "We won`t be here always" and "play station", not "Playstation".

Features

Just two trailers for the film.

Conclusion

Gritty coming of age stories are not exactly new, but this does not follow the familiar trend, showing Michael`s descent into criminality. David Kross puts in a fine performance as Michael and every member of the cast is believable, coming across not as actors, but as people picked from the streets of Neukölln to reprise their real-life roles.

Detlev Buck`s direction is assured, bringing a grainy realism to the screen and working the tense situations expertly. My only issue with the film is the non-original music, which I found too loud and overpowering, detracting from the images rather than enhancing them.

PR companies should know by now what puts a reviewer in a bad mood: receiving, as a review disc, a DVD-R with the title written in felt-tip. I hope that the retail disc is less sparse as this contained only 4.32 Gb of data which is all too evident.

Despite the cheapo disc, I did enjoy `Tough Enough`, if `enjoy` is the right word, finding it a gripping drama and interesting commentary on the tensions between the native German and immigrant populations. Fine film, shame about the disc.