The ritual is intriguing but the spell doesn't entirely take hold. Or perhaps the magic remains hidden in the depths of the film -- and it's up to each viewer to take the plunge.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 18, 2021

Undine's area of study is Berlin's gradual architectural mutation from century to century; a shot of two lovers diving among submerged ruins whispers a warning that all things-from true love to civilization itself-must pass.

| Jul 19, 2021

Undine's hauntingly aching romance is enchanting, as thick as the feeling of inhaling water into your lungs.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 16, 2021

The German director Christian Petzold is a maestro of modern (or modernized) myths.

| Jul 2, 2021

This is classic Petzold territory, where you can dwell in a place, or a relationship, without ever quite belonging there.

| Jun 13, 2021

I don't think this film came together to a point for a Christian Petzold film. I was pretty disappointed.

| Jun 8, 2021

Petzold asks what love is, and offers surrender as an answer; he asks what surrender is, and offers violence as an answer. Undine drenches you in the force of its romance and its dread.

| Jun 5, 2021

[A] psychological portrait that wades slowly into the supernatural.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 5, 2021

There's a human (or at least a piscine) heart beating beneath all of that scaffolding, but it's muffled.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 5, 2021

The potency of their passion is short-lived but shimmers with truth and harmony, a feeling that remains like an aftertaste of honey once the final frame fades to black.

| Jun 4, 2021

"Undine" is a poker-faced fairy tale, a fantasy wrought by a committed cinematic realist. It's an example of how a filmmaker can take an outlandish central idea and play it beautifully straight.

| Jun 4, 2021

The mysterious aspects of the movie are what make it so hard to shake off, for all of its frustrations.

| Jun 4, 2021

Petzold carries Berlin's darkness into the current moment, inventing new ways to tie his characters to the foundational struggle of the past.

| Jun 4, 2021

I enjoyed the swim even if I'm not quite sure the film conveys what's going on under its surface.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 4, 2021

Petzold's latest is an uncharacteristically playful lark - more puzzling than haunting.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 4, 2021

Ms. Beer and Mr. Rogowski were extraordinary in Transit and they're wonderful together here. He's a formidably physical actor with a lyrical gift. She's an actress who, as the old saw goes, could hold an audience by reading the phone book.

| Jun 3, 2021

"Undine" is a beauty to behold, a timeless urban fantasy that never over explains and leaves you wanting to see it again for deeper context and meaning.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 3, 2021

"Undine" is ultimately more enigmatic than most of Petzold's work. It is also, like its title character, eerily beautiful. While it could well serve as a high-end date movie, it's also something more.

| Jun 3, 2021

Undine's water origins are no impediment to an audience's investment in her romantic life.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 2, 2021

Regardless of whether Undine is working at a level of allegory or actual fantasy, it is an expansively rich film.

| Jun 2, 2021