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Princess and the Warrior, The
Sony Pictures Classics

Princess and the Warrior, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 64 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.6 out of 10
based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 22 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for disturbing images, language and some sexual content

Starring Franka Potente, Benno Fürmann, Joachim Król, Marita Breuer, Lars Rudolph, and Melchior Beslon

Director Tom Tykwer reunites with his "Run Lola Run" star Franka Potente in this film about the relationship between a small time criminal and a shy psychiatric nurse who meet as the result of a horrible accident.


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Tom Tykwer  
DIRECTED BY: Tom Tykwer  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 29, 2002 
Video: January 29, 2002 
Theatrical: June 22, 2001 
RUNNING TIME: 120 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: Germany 
LANGUAGE(S): German (with English subtitles) 

Original German title "Der Krieger und die Kaiserin"

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A heady yet disciplined work, a dazzling fable of love, destiny and redemption.
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88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
What's special about the film is at a deeper level, down where (Tykwer) engages with the souls of his characters.
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83
Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Every once in a while a picture comes along that captures not just love, but romance in all its fear, yearning, fantasy, eroticism and unexpected epiphanies. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer's The Princess and the Warrior is one such film.
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80
The New York Times Stephen Holden
Deeply whimsical beneath its poker face, The Princess and the Warrior has the structure of an elaborate mind-teasing puzzle.
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80
New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo
The cornerstone of this fascinating film is a peculiar but absolutely solid love story. In terms of intellectual and emotional stimulation, who could ask for more?
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80
Washington Post Desson Thomson
You don't have any idea what's going to happen next. You're not caught in a movie, so much as a narrative stratagem.
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80
Variety David Rooney
Eminently stylish, visually striking romantic thriller.
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80
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Spellbinding on its own terms, a modernist fable with a madly romantic soul.
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Offers much food for thought.
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75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
When (Tykwer) connects it's exhilarating and gorgeous, a sight to behold.
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75
Chicago Tribune Loren King
An unpredictable, mythic tale about haunted outcasts that is both dazzling and disquieting.
75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Vastly more explicit (be warned) and intelligent (than "Angel Eyes"). It also leads to much darker - and more interesting - places.
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75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Lacks the gimmicky hook that made "Run Lola Run" an arthouse hit, but it doesn't lack for ideas, nor for images that will sweep you up in their boldness and have the resonance of dreams.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It's dreary and self-indulgent but has its crystalline moments.
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70
Newsweek David Ansen
Goes on too long, and much of it is hooey, but it’s hard not to have a good time.
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63
USA Today Mike Clark
The film has its moments as a mood piece.
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63
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Princess is far more contemplative than "Run Lola Run," far less energized, and the little tricks of fate that made his last film so unique seem like sophomoric affectations here.
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63
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Tykwer made Potente a star in Run Lola Run, and here she repays him 10 times over. Without her force of gravity, this film would waft into the ether.
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63
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Nowhere near as dynamic as the title implies. It's hard not to think of it as ''Sleepwalk Lola Sleepwalk.''
60
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Promising in its first third, only to end up shambling too aimlessly in the last. But as flawed as this picture is, there's one sequence in it that has already burrowed deep in my memory, and of everything in the movie, it's the one element that convinces me that Tykwer has it in him to one day make a truly great picture.
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50
TV Guide Ken Fox
(Tykwer's) unpredictability has become predictable, and the only thing genuinely uncanny here is the unsettling — and unintentional — sense of déjà vu.
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50
LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
Tykwer may want meaning to go with his special effects, but the problem with his filmmaking, both here and earlier, is that he's more interested in his own bag of tricks than in actually saying something.
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50
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Tykwer ends the film on a bizarre note that caught me off guard, a too-literal bit of salvation that is more bothersome than revelatory.
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40
Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
An absurdist semi-romance between two traumatized somnambulists.
30
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Throughout, Tykwer reaches for mysteries he has no idea how to evoke, relying instead on his actors' empty stares.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

amurabi m. gave it a5:
This long and overrated film is made for tom "lola" tykwer. the original version rus along three hours and a half, but this version is "just" two hours long, and it happens than this version is too cut, too edited to get something coherent, but it fails to do it. tykwer made so many subplots, so many characters than all of them are not "detail" but distractions of the original story. there are so many twists and turns than just works to bother and distract over the love story. of course, is exquisitely filmed but all the gimmicks, tricks and that hyperkinetic mise en scène are seems like something redundant and vacuous. the plot involving potente and furmann love story seems short and restrained to be more anecdotic than the actually main premise. it feels disappointing because is too brainy, too forced to play mind tricks, and too forced artsy and intellectual. "run lola run" works because has the same characteristics hidden in that popular taste and in "der krieger un die kaiserin" tant subltlety is hidden in a madhouse.

Unbearable Lightness gave it a 10:
Brilliant.

Roman B. gave it a 10:
FANTASTIC FILM!!

Kev L. gave it a 10:
Captures the strongest love and fear together in a starkly crisp film. Fantastic.

Ana Paula P. gave it a 10:
The best movie of the year. Benno Furmman and Franka Potente were amazing.

SBW gave it a 9:
Loved the story, loved the acting and the script had some wonderful and memorable lines. This is NOT a chick flick - it is for anyone who appreciates quality independent film work.

J. P. gave it a 10:
I can't get this this film out of my head. It is Tykwer's best yet. I actually liked it better than "Run Lola Run" and "Winter Sleepers."

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