By Ed Yu

Film Vitals:

Movie Review

The hyperkinetic “Run Lola Run” was an international hit for German filmmaker Tom Tykwer. His follow-up work, “The Princess and the Warrior” features the same lead actress, Franka Potente, who has a small role in the film “Blow.”

If you’re seeking another pulsating, visually avant-garde film, look elsewhere. Apart from a truck accident scene where Bobo (an intense Benno Formann) saves Sissi (Potente) in one of the year’s most gut-wrenching scenes, “Princess” unfolds like a patient on sedatives.

Sissi, a nurse in a psychiatric ward, is trapped in a loveless and meaningless life until her fateful rescue. She becomes obsessed with finding her savior who himself is trapped in a loveless and meaningless life when he tragically loses his wife. He wants nothing further to do with love, while she wants to know whether destiny brought them together to discover love.

Sissi underreacts where Bobo overreacts. She is emotionless whether she receives a thick letter from her best friend or gives pleasure to a patient. He breaks into spontaneous tears at the slightest hint of hurt and self-mutilates by grabbing the burning furnace at night when he dreams of his dead wife.

Tykwer takes a long time to set up the vast emotional difference between his two main characters. As a result, the pace of the film suffers. Fortunately, his signature camera moves help to inject desperately needed energy into the film. But they occur too infrequently to count.

An unconvincing bank robbery almost sinks the film, but this pivotal scene propels Sissi and Bobo to bridge their differences and attempt to relate. The conversion of their tension into emotional connection finally allows us to care for them.

A story featuring complex, flawed characters comes as a nice reprieve from the formulaic summer films. There are echoes of the haunting hospital ward scenes from “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and the fugitive-on-the-run theme from “Thelma & Louise.” However, Tykwer never achieves the cinematic brilliance of either film.

“Princess” may not dazzle like “Run Lola Run,” but it does offer a mysterious meditation on the power of love and fate. Consider seeing this film if you have the tolerance for its slow pace.

Grade: B-

Rated R; in German with English subtitles.

Opens Friday at the Park Theater in Menlo Park.