
In Germany, the elder Frau Traude Krueger gives piano classes in a prison for a few prisoners and the security guard Mütze. When she sees the rebel and aggressive Jenny Von Loeben playing piano, she immediately identifies her potential and offers to teach her for a competition. Frau Krueger finds that Jenny was a prodigy when she was a child; abused when she was a teenager and has been imprisoned for murdering and decapitating a man. Along the period they work together prepa... (Full plot summary below)
Enjoy FREE movies and series with your Prime (USA) subscription or when you start a 30-day free trial!
Links compiled using automated software. Availability of offers subject to change / might be region specific / out of date.
In Germany, the elder Frau Traude Krueger gives piano classes in a prison for a few prisoners and the security guard Mütze. When she sees the rebel and aggressive Jenny Von Loeben playing piano, she immediately identifies her potential and offers to teach her for a competition. Frau Krueger finds that Jenny was a prodigy when she was a child; abused when she was a teenager and has been imprisoned for murdering and decapitating a man. Along the period they work together preparing for the exhibition, Frau Krueger discloses secrets about her love in World War II while the self-destructive Jenny has four minutes of glory and recognition of her talent.
Leave your thoughts about Four Minutes.
| Orange County and Long Beach BladeFr. Chris CarpenterPotent tale...one of the ten best films released in 2008 |
| Film Journal InternationalDavid NohThere are the odd few tender moments, but they are only brief interludes between more sturm und drang. |
| TV GuideKen FoxA stirringly scored, refreshingly unsentimental drama. |
| Los Angeles CityBeatAndy Klein... [filled] with minor mysteries and compelling characters. |
| TheMovieReport.comMichael DequinaCredit goes to writer-director Chris Kraus and his remarkable leads for making any such complaints about the story's familiar nature moot. |
| Flick FilosopherMaryAnn JohansonBleibtreu and Herzsprung embody their characters with such vicious monstrousity that it's hard to forget that they're merely actors. |
| New York PostV.A. MusettoIt's part Jerry Lee Lewis and part Glenn Gould. |
| Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinSo relentlessly oppressive it suffocates its potentially strong themes and characterizations. |
| New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisA women-behind-bars plot seething with lesbianism, incest, hanging and catfights -- on paper, at least, Four Minutes promises more fun than a Roger Corman marathon. |
| GuardianPeter BradshawUnderneath the harshness and the severity there is a thick, spongey layer of pure Hollywood schmaltz, and the movie runs on predictable lines. |