One Way Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
In New York, the competent creative director of Birk Advertising Eddie Shneider is living a successful moment of his professional life and is engaged and has just proposed Judy Birk, the daughter of the owner of the company where he works. Eddie is also a wolf and very successful with many women, and is having an affair with a neighbor of the street where he lives with Judy. When he gets the account of the greatest American airline for his company, he is promoted to partner and he celebrates with his assistant and friend Angelina Sable in a lunch party in a restaurant. After hours, when they are in the garage, Angeline notes that she had forgotten her car keys in the office, and when she returns, she is violently raped by the despicable brother of Judy, Anthony Birk. On the next morning, when Eddie arrives in the garage, he finds the traumatized Angeline on the floor and he takes her to a hospital. He returns to the company and Anthony blackmails Eddie with pictures of his many affairs. Eddie has to take a side between his career and engagement and his friendship with Angeline.
| Til Schweiger | Eddie Shneider |
| Lauren Lee Smith | Angelina Sable |
| Sebastien Roberts | Anthony Birk |
| Stefanie von Pfetten | Judy Birk |
| Michael Clarke Duncan | The General |
| Art Hindle | Russel Birk |
| Sonja Smits | Linda Birk |
| Eric Roberts | Nick Swell |
| Kenneth Welsh | Anderson |
| Ned Bellamy | Steve Dwight |
| Trevor Roberts | Man #4 |
| Jim Boeven | Anthony´s friend |
| Steve Byers | Ricardo |
| Mark Clifton | Priest |
| Sebastian Gacki | Man #3 |
| Reto Salimbeni |
6.10 out of 10 (699 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Very good movie.....rape scenes are amazingly credible!
posted on 14 Apr 2009I enjoyed this movie very much, I like that as the plot unfolds we are thrown many curve balls that catch us by surprise and keep us in our seats. I was impressed with most of the acting (especially the villain)Anthony Birk played by Sebastien Roberts. I didn't know him before so I don't know if he plays villains often but man is he nasty!! I love Eric Roberts, I thought he was great but I was expecting to see him a lot more. I wasn't certain about (the General) character played by Micheal Clark Duncan but in the end it works.The only thing that bothered me in this movie was the overwhelming violence in the opening scene, I thought that was a little much. Definitely a movie to see.Marc
Would have been better if Schweiger had stayed behind the scenes
posted on 01 Mar 2009I was lucky enough to attend a screening of the movie which was followed by a Q&A with the director. I am not going to elaborate my opinion on the movie, as someone else has already written an excellent review. Suffice to say, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.Let me just state that I found the performance of Til Schweiger to be abysmal. His struggle with the English language is all too obvious. The director told me after the movie that he wanted an European "fish eye" for how New York is perceived, and that accents are nothing out of the ordinary in the Big Apple. While that is true, you can't hide the fact that the vocabulary used for Schweiger's character is too sophisticated. While trying to pronounce the words correctly (it sounds as if he had practiced them just briefly before shooting the scene), Schweiger loses control of his otherwise excellent acting skills.If you can look past this flaw, you're going to be rewarded for your money.
go watch something else... anything else.
posted on 17 Feb 2009the trailer was able to catch my attention... but what i didn't expect was to see a brutal rape in a 10-min-scene. what were they thinking? (why) did we have to watch that?? the rape scene is important for the story - but they could have told the audience that one had happened or just adumbrate one, instead of forcing the viewers to watch that brutality without a warning.without that particular scene, the film wouldn't be so bad, but probably a waste of valuable life time anyway.in the end we all left angry and full of aggressions.don't watch this film, you will regret it.
Til Schweigers movie "One Way" let you feel the pain
posted on 17 Feb 2009My husband and I saw "One Way", the new movie of the German actor Til Schweiger. There were no coughing, no feet-stamping and no murmurs to hear during the whole movie. Even at the end the silence continued. Than my husband broke it, saying: "Man, what a good movie was that!" The story and the pictures are very intense. They catch the viewer's whole attention which you can hardly escape.The topic of the movie is rape. It's about guilt and atonement.About law, morals and justice.In a today's criticism I read the sentence: "Sometimes it is the start of a movie that gives rise to doubts. In "One Way", the movie of the Swiss Reto Salimbini, a girl is followed by several men and raped brutally, as a black figure wearing a uniform (Michael Clareke Duncan) appears and butchers the wrongdoers with a machine gun. The plot changes from this revenge-fantasy to the New Yorker world of the publicity expert Eddie (Til Schweiger)…" Now I ask myself seriously: What is so disconcerting about the imagination that the victim imagines the death of the men that are raping her? Isn't it even understandable somehow? The visualization in the movie makes the fantasy visible for the viewers - and uncomfortable. "One Way" is consequently shown from the rape victim's point of view, which is definitely not a daily mean.In an other criticism it is said that the rape scenes are shown very drastically. So I watched them critically. My judgment: I have seen more drastically rape scenes in movies and on television before. But what is really hard to the spectator is - during the whole rape the camera is filming the victim's face. Vivid, oppressive and frightening.The pictures do not allow any evading and phrases like "…somehow she wanted that, too…" or "It's not as bad as it seems…" are absolutely wrong and out of place. The victim is injured with great physical and psychological pain.Is it a woman allowed to take revenge if she has been raped, humiliated and emotionally killed? If she can't trust her pretending best friend or in justice? In "One Way" two raped and humiliated women experience emotional justice in the end and an initial slime ball develops into a better man. This is more than reality can (unfortunatly) sometimes offer.Fill the movie theaters and watch it! It's worth it! Marte Cormann, www.kinoplausch.de
surprisingly professional for a German production
posted on 07 Aug 2008I've read several reviews prior to watching the film and I really was afraid I could waste a lot of time with it and although I don't believe too much in reviews I was shocked about how bad they said the film was. However, before I read them I saw the trailer somewhere on the internet and I liked it. That's why I dared watching the movie and was rather pleasantly surprised with it. It's certainly no blockbuster but it's good entertainment and keeps interesting until the end. Especially since I'm German I'm proud of how good a German production can be nowadays compared to Hollywood movies (keep in mind the $7 million budget). Some said they considered the general as ridiculous, but he is a part of Angelina's psyche and I think it's rather obvious that victims of certain brutal crimes develop a psychic illness of some kind to bear with what they have experienced. So the biggest weakness, in my opinion, is the clearly audible German accent of Til Schweiger, but I rather smiled about it and had a good time nonetheless.
simply great
posted on 11 May 2008Very strong & deep movie. As obsessed moviegoer, I rarely give 10 points. But this time I just can't find anything to deduct. Story, cast of characters, camera work, music, locations etc. everything was simply excellent. Be prepared, that the beginning of the film is somewhat shocking. But this scene plays an important role to understand the psychological factors of the development of the plot and its main characters. This film does not only play at the surface on perpetual themes of life, it's far going beyond. A felicitous mixture of love & hate, power & justice, confidence & friendship, cohesion & extortion are the successful recipes for this extraordinary script.
A very good and must see movie
posted on 01 May 2008i found it a very good and interesting movie which i did not expect, when i started playing this, i couldn't stop myself continue playing because of a good run of the story. i just planned to see only the start of the movie but i finished it, i don't know, maybe it was the good story. i recommend this for those who have not watched yet. the beauties of two young ladies, Judy and Angelina are a plus! the story will not astray you like those other movies. i like all the casts here and they acted professionally, i was sad and happy in the end. Actually i am not that familiar of these casts because i am an avid war movie fan, but if you watch this seriously (must be) because this is a serious movie with just a short comedy of course, you will be educated on some sort of morality, honesty and fidelity i think this movie earned a fans from matured viewers.
Sadly Disappointing
posted on 23 Apr 2008I'm afraid this film is rather bad. I just went to see it yesterday and was surprised it was given a cinema release.I am a strong supporter of independent film and especially of Swiss directors, but this film sadly never gets out of C-Movie territory. The story itself has the makings of a fantastic movie, the themes of violence against women, betrayal and revenge are topics of enduring interest.I am normally delighted to see European (in this case German) actors participating in international films which will showcase them to a wider audience. I'm well acquainted with Til Schweigers work, but I thought his acting was awful in this film, full of clichés and hamminess. He was even better in King Arthur (another bad film) where he only had a few sentences of dialogue. Even though he was typecast as a villain in that one, his acting was miles better than in this latest offering.The supporting cast were also pretty bad in this film, especially the guys who played the boss of the advertising agency and his son, they were just awful.The filming of the violent attacks were needlessly graphic in this case and did not lend to the gravitas of the film. Other films have done this in a much more poignant(or relevant) manner e.g. Lilja-4-Ever, The Accused, Boys Don't Cry, Irreversible...etc. etc.The whole concept of the victim introducing an imaginary hero to help her cope with the trauma of rape didn't work at all in this instance and I thought this was a very weak point in the script and it's direction.The plot of the film is actually very interesting material, and if worked with in another way, could have been great. I intend no disrespect towards the makers of this film, as releases like these are normally a labour of love and an awful lot of very hard work goes into them, but i cannot give this film a good rating as it simply badly executed.
Til Schweiger takes a more interesting career turn
posted on 10 Sep 2007hmmmm, yesss. From the statistics I read that US females over 30 did not like this film. Whereas the younger audience especially in Europe was thrilled. Why would this be so? The film is about rape and about revenge and how the victim feels and into what kind of situation she gets put by her surroundings. Seeing how things are, the US are very ambivalent about sexual themes. Not to say 'hypocritical'. Judging from the themes feministic theory in the US put forward in the 70ies and 80ies sexual oppression and violence are very much more of a problem when they cannot be voiced at all. This may have been different in Europe with a more liberal approach in many countries (well, not all, I believe...). Anyway, this might explain, why a film like 'One Way' will not be received so open-heartedly in the US - it is painful. And it shows parents in their relationship to their children in a very painful way. Maybe this also explains the distaste of 'elderly women' (to phrase it this way without actually implying criticism).This much for the background. The film itself is a treat in that it shows a comparatively new side of Til Schweiger as a 'real' actor besides the many comedian roles he has played - actually one of those bought him his ticket to the film world: 'Manta, Manta'. He played in some more serious films before: "The Ice Bear" (Der Eisbaer) and "Knocking on Heaven's Door", but even his last flick in 2006 "Where is Fred" (Wo ist Fred) was a comedy - not bad (and including some hilarious stunts by Christoph Maria Herbst and beautiful Anna Maria Lara) - but not really a revelation. Also the film puts him in context with many other good actors, especially Lauren Lee Smith. For a while Schweiger has been directing and/or producing his own films - maybe because this was the way of getting a job at all? I hope not - rather do I hope that he will some time tread in the footsteps of Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford etc.I will leave the comments to the film itself to the other two I have seen posted. Just this: it is a dark film, giving rise to hope, nevertheless. And it does show many things to make people thoughtful - and I do hope this makes them like the film rather than dislike (which would be the far more easy thing to do).
Brother-in-law
posted on 28 Feb 2007The young advertising executive Eddie Schneider is am ambitious man. He has an appetite for sex as well, and this will get him in hot water, sooner rather than later. He is living with Judy Birk, the daughter of his boss at the agency. Little does she realize what goes on with her young stud when he leaves their place!Eddie's popularity ultimately gets him in trouble. His future brother-in-law, Anthony Birk, who has had Eddie followed, has gathered enough evidence to end his engagement. Anthony also has eyes for Eddie's assistant and one-time interest, Angelina Sable, who he wants to bed. Angelina, a young woman fighting the demons of having gone through a rape when she was a teenager, proves to be the wrong person for Anthony to mess with. When Anthony turns dead, Eddie turns against Angelina, something he will later regret, since only the girl knows what really is going on."One Way", written and directed by Reto Sambileni, is a film which pretends to have been made in New York, but just by looking at it, one realizes it was filmed in different parts of the world, with some exterior photography to give the impression this was American. Then, there is the performance of Til Schweiger, an intense German actor, that tries hard to give the impression he is the slick New Yorker, he is not. Mr. Schweiger bears an uncanny resemblance to Anderson Cooper, minus the gray hair.The actors, mainly Canadians, do what they can with the thin material they were given to perform. Eric Roberts is one of the lucky ones with his defense lawyer. Sebastien Roberts, who plays Anthony, has some good moments. Lauren Lee Smith, is not quite convincing as Angelina, the girl with a dark past. There is an absurd prologue involving a young Angelina as she is being hunted by some youths, as a US general comes to make things right for her.
"One Way" (2006) is an excellent film that you will want to come your way.
posted on 16 Feb 2007From the start of the film, the audience knows that this is going to be a complex, and not a simple who-dun-it. The audience is enlightened by the completely truthful depiction of rape as violent. Beyond lust or sexual molestation, rape is brutal and violent. It is not at all uncommon for the victim to wish the rapist(s), and any accomplices, dead. To survive, the victim must initially fantasize a murder of the perpetrator(s), and holds on to a strong feeling of revenge.There is the wealth and power of the Birk family, who maintains a 'we against them' philosophy to cover-up any corruption, and to protect each member of the immediate family. A strong matriarch and patriarch holds the family together, no matter what. Somehow, I think the entire family knew about the evil deeds of the son, but protects him anyway, with the help of corporate lawyer with a track record of winning most, if not all, of his cases. The son engages in blackmail, to selfishly hold onto the Birk fortune (he covets wealth, at any cost). Things get so chaotic and heated that, towards the end of the film, the daughter is pitted against the son, even after he is sexually violated (here, one of the victims gets her moments of revenge), and shot to death. But, has justice been served?I will not give any more details because I do not ruin the excitement and thrills of the film. If you are like me, the film will hold you on the edge of your seat. The film is riveting.I was disappointed that the film has a rather bittersweet ending. I so much prefer happy endings. But, the film is true to life. Yes, life does have its compensations. Unfortunately, however, there may be some harsh realities and shattered dreams. In the end, do the victims win? And, will the perpetrator(s) be brought to justice? Is there equality and fairness in the judgments made? Does life go on after injustice and rape? Find out the answers, to at least some of these questions, by seeing this very worthwhile film, which really makes you think about the issues surrounding corporate power, cover-ups and corruption, the judicial system, ethics, morality, rape, status and wealth, etcetera.This film is a must-see, and I rank it a 10 out of 10. The ensemble cast is superb, as is the direction and writing by Reto Salimbeni. The editing is well executed, and the music aptly adds to the film's mystery, suspense and tension--which constantly builds and increases the tautness of the spellbinding thrills of this crime drama. I hope that we will see more of these fine actors, including Eric Roberts.
Perjuries, Ambition, Family Secret and Truth
posted on 22 Apr 2009In New York, the competent creative director of Birk Advertising Eddie Schneider (Til Schweiger) is living a successful moment of his professional life and is engaged and has just proposed Judy Birk (Stefanie von Pfetten), the daughter of the owner of the company where he works. Eddie is also a wolf and very successful with many women, and is having an affair with a neighbor of the street where he lives with Judy. When he gets the account of the greatest American airline for his company, he is promoted to partner and he celebrates with his assistant and friend Angelina Sable (Lauren Lee Smith) in a lunch party in a restaurant. After hours, when they are in the garage, Angeline notes that she had forgotten her car keys in the office, and when she returns, she is violently raped by the despicable brother of Judy, Anthony Birk (Sebastien Roberts). On the next morning, when Eddie arrives in the garage, he finds the traumatized Angeline on the floor and he takes her to a hospital. He returns to the company and Anthony blackmails Eddie with pictures of his many affairs. Eddie has to take a side between his career and engagement and his friendship with Angeline."One Way" is a great movie supported by a magnificent screenplay that uses elements of thriller, crime, drama and even soap opera. The intriguing beginning, with a girl being gang raped by four teenagers and an enigmatic general rescuing her is absolutely original and brilliantly explains the character and traumas of Angeline, magnificently performed by Lauren Lee Smith. Sebastien Roberts is perfect in the role of a cynical scum and I confess that I loved when Angeline uses a sexual device to rape him. Til Schweiger has also a great performance in the role of an ambiguous character divided between his career and the loyalty for his friend, but he redeems in the end refusing to blame Angeline. The sweet Stefanie von Pfetten fits perfectly to her characters and her confession about a family secret in the end is the great twist of this movie. Eric Roberts has a minor but efficient participation in the role of Eddie's lawyer. In the end, I really liked "One Way" a lot and I do not understand why it is so underrated in IMDb User Rating. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Pacto Quebrado" ("Broken Pact")