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You've got to admire a film that uses the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man" for its opening credits, and then shows a bank robbery where the thieves bring baked goods for their victims and boldly announce their arrival by shouting, "Hello, guys - we're the robbers."
Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there for The Legends of Rita. The film, which has been nominated for a handful of awards in Europe, is a fairly interesting look at the political climate of Germany in the 1970s and '80s. Rita boasts a strong lead performance by an actress with very little film experience, but, like Bagger Vance's legend, the picture is kind of dull and pointless.
Bibiana Beglau stars as Rita Vogt, a member of West Germany's Red Army Faction - the group responsible for the bank robbery in the film's opening scene. The RAF's mission is to destabilize capitalism in the country through any means necessary. Stealing money from the bank isn't robbery - it's redistribution of wealth, and Rita gleefully gives a panhandler a fistful of the loot lifted from the raid.
But Rita is only in the RAF because she has a crush on Andi (Harald Schrott), one of the group's militant leaders. Sure, she believes somewhat in the RAF's mission and, since most of their actions are non-violent, Rita finds the whole idea of rebellion pretty damn exciting. But after a couple of mishaps, she finds herself hiding in East Germany with a wig and a new - and quite less exciting - identity.
The "Legends" in the title refer to each new identity Rita is forced to assume (with help from the East German secret police). In one, she falls in love with a lifeguard. In another, she befriends a woman named Tatjana (Nadja Uhl), who craves a life away from her drab city and boring factory job and can't understand why Rita is so content. We're not talking about exciting stuff here. Once Rita and her RAF cronies disband, the film gets awfully boring. For a while, it seemed like it could be gearing up for some hot girl-on-girl action, but it never pans out.
Beglau's performance is good enough to rise above the mess of a story (think Katarina Witt, but with a gun instead of ice skates). Director Volker Schlöndorff (Palmetto) does a decent job recreating the gritty look of pre-Wall-fall Germany, but his script (which was co-written by Wolfgang Kohlhaase) really needs to be kicked up a notch or two. Rita starts promisingly, like Cecil B. Demented, but ends with all of the gusto and pizzazz in a round of laundry.
1:41 – Not Rated but contains adult language, violence, nudity and strong sexual content
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