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Revanche

• Written and directed by Gotz Spielmann
• Starring Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko, Hannes Thanheiser, Ursula Strauss
• Classification: NA
• Four stars

A little bit of Crime and Punishment and a whole lot of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Revanche, the Austrian candidate for last year's Best Foreign Language Film, is a surprisingly unruffled tale of love, thievery, murder and revenge.

The German-language film begins with an unidentified object piercing a remote lake. Ripples disturb the water, then disappear. Even nature shrugs off violence in writer-director Gotz Spielmann's world, it seems.

Soon afterward, we meet two Viennese criminals. Tamara (Irina Potapenko) is a Ukrainian call girl; Alex (Johannes Krisch) her boyfriend-dealer, is second-in-command at the brothel where Tamara works. Their secret relationship becomes a problem when the first-in-command moves in on Tamara, offering to set her up in a nice apartment. She refuses. The mob kingpin has another thug beat her up. Alex intervenes, then quickly realizes his mistake. The boss will put two and two together. One or both lovers may soon be killed.

“We've got to get out,” he says.

“Why, it's perfectly normal here,” Tamara replies, chopping another line of cocaine.

Alex ultimately convinces Tamara to run away with him. He has a gun. There is this sleepy bank he knows of. Soon, they'll have enough money to settle somewhere nice, maybe an island off Spain, he tells her.

Of course, the robbery goes awry. Alex is forced to hide at his grandfather's Austrian farm. There, he encounters Susanne (Ursula Strauss), the cheerful, church-going wife of the cop who ruined his getaway plans. Despite her effervescent manner, Susanne is deeply troubled – sexually wounded. Maybe Alex will help her. Maybe he'll help himself. Or maybe he'll find his gun and follow her cop husband to the remote lake seen in the film's opening credits.

Filmmaker Spielmann barely bats an eye during all of this. His camera remains stationary, except for a half dozen scenes, during the entire film. And the director never provides characters with excuses. Revanche (revenge in French) unfolds with little ceremony or explanation. Robbery, murder and betrayal are all meant to seem “perfectly normal.”

Thrillers are almost never this casual. And yet Spielmann's restraint leads to a delicious tension as well as a surprise visitor – God. Alex's grandfather (Hannes Thanheiser) believes Alex is a solid worker and therefore a good man. Susanne's trust is more complicated. Instinct drove her into Alex's arms. Will their faith change the thief, a man who until now has been driven by anger and opportunity? (As the possibility of good arises, we remember Tamara had bowed her head and prayed as her armed boyfriend rushed into the bank.)

A veteran film and theatre director in Austria, Spielmann is good with actors. Both female leads are compelling, artfully concealed characters.

But it is star Johannes Krisch as Alex, who commands our attention, making Revanche riveting entertainment. A coiled acrobat who does a back flip across the bed in response to a knock at the door, Alex is nimble, and strong as any two men. Yet he finds it impossible to meet a stranger's gaze. We never understand the conflicting impulses of rage and surrender at play behind his eyes, and so never know until the film's exhilarating climax whether he is capable of cold-blooded murder.