Granted, I am a HUGE fan of almost everything
I fell for Dani the moment I laid eyes on her. That accent and her behavior as Isobel's protector.. But I am slow to pick up clues [Remember I hit my head] and so I didn't realize that Dani was a lesbian at first.
that director Brian DePalma is associated with, so when he directed the Hollywood remake of the 2007 French film: Love Crime in which a 
Berlin-based advertising executive engages in a professional struggle with her assistant, as she continually stifle attempts of the latter to further her career. I couldn't wait to see the final result, because I am rarely disappointed by a DePalma vehicle and ironically there's not one American dollar in this movie, but I still consider it an “American” remake and while the ostensible Sapphic tensions between the characters played by Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace and Karoline Herfurth don't really get all that much traction with the most explicit stuff being the reveal of sex toys, it’s all Okay by me because often when explicit depictions of sex are introduced, the movie runs the risks of losing character focus and detracting from the narrative. For me the emotional dynamics were key in this game of corporate one-upwomanship as seen in the pivotal scene between Isobel and Dani, where power dynamic shifts yet again, making Isobel the mouse to Dani’s predator cat.
Berlin-based advertising executive engages in a professional struggle with her assistant, as she continually stifle attempts of the latter to further her career. I couldn't wait to see the final result, because I am rarely disappointed by a DePalma vehicle and ironically there's not one American dollar in this movie, but I still consider it an “American” remake and while the ostensible Sapphic tensions between the characters played by Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace and Karoline Herfurth don't really get all that much traction with the most explicit stuff being the reveal of sex toys, it’s all Okay by me because often when explicit depictions of sex are introduced, the movie runs the risks of losing character focus and detracting from the narrative. For me the emotional dynamics were key in this game of corporate one-upwomanship as seen in the pivotal scene between Isobel and Dani, where power dynamic shifts yet again, making Isobel the mouse to Dani’s predator cat. The story goes like this:
After Christine takes credit for one of her assistant's ideas, the struggles begin and enters the personal realm with Isobel having an affair with Christine's boyfriend[?] who's an embezzler, while also colluding with an equally disgruntled colleague Dani, who happens to be a lesbian. In retaliation, Christine devises a scheme that involves sexual advances to overcome Isobel -- and the ground is set for all out war!
\\I watched the American remake of this movie: Passion starring Rachel McAdams [Christine] and Noomi Rapace [Isobel] and let me tell you that it’s rare when a Hollywood remake equals the original much less surpasses the original. I’ve railed against remakes of: Let The Right One In and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but in this case not only does director DePalma return to his old school style of his early works [Carrie (1976) ,Dressed To Kill, Body Double, Blow Out etc] of which I am an ardent fan, DePalma employs his signature with his use of split screen designed to present the viewer with dueling perspectives of action.
The director also incorporates numerous twists and turns reminiscent of the David Lynch Film Noir Masterpiece: Mulholland Drive:
“Now Tell Me You Love Me”
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 Noomi Rapace and Karoline Herfurth as Dani |
I was a little hesitant when I first learned that the character Christine wasn’t going to be cast with an older woman, I initially felt the power dynamics between isobel and Christine would suffer as a result.
| Rachel McAdams as Christine |
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However in my eyes: Rachel McAdams steals the thunder previously established by actress Kristin Scott Thomas by playing the character not only as younger, but also as truly pathological in her portrayal of Christine as a manipulative, high-powered ad executive, who sets out to destroy Isobel. McAdams plays Christine as an over the top narcissist with Sociopathic tendencies, engaging Rapace in a Sado/Masochistic game of Domination and Humiliation and to make matters worse she also targets Isobel’s assistant Dani entwining the three in a homoerotic: “danse de la mort” (dance of death).
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If I hadn't already seen the original, I would have been at a loss as to who had the greatest motive for murder.
The twists accumulate at a concentrated pace in the final 20 minutes of the film with Dani facing a rather unwanted scenario.
The twists accumulate at a concentrated pace in the final 20 minutes of the film with Dani facing a rather unwanted scenario. 
I fell for Dani the moment I laid eyes on her. That accent and her behavior as Isobel's protector.. But I am slow to pick up clues [Remember I hit my head] and so I didn't realize that Dani was a lesbian at first.  |
 German actress Karoline Herfurth at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Herfurth is how the character Alice Piezecki should have
looked on The L Word.
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I have yet to see a movie that I didn't enjoy watching Noomi Rapace in (Prometheus included]. Maybe it's her face: the bone structure or maybe it's the way she plays an innocent with a deeper/darker side that is so hidden that even she is unaware of its deadly existence.
Finally I liked how the German language is peppered throughout the movie, but there is no subtext! I mean Subtitles. Ich spreche wenig Deutsche and it gave me a chance to practice.
For me Passion warrants a rating of: –A which means: Der Film war sehr gut.