How can man gain redemption after a mistake, that was not even his to begin with? This quintessence of misfortune variegates human souls between triumphs and defeats, of those who have tasted the thrill of victory and those who live mired in loss. And yet, does humanity provide the means for such lost patrons of its race the ability to raise themselves up again? Or is humanity inconsiderate of the true vulnerability to the swirling stars and cosmic fate which can inflame human misery – certainly unjustly? Does man have within him the ability to create a just order with himself in Nature? Or is he forever submerged to Her awesome and infinite power were we to relate it to how much insignificant motion he can act within just one life of his!

Mr. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Gunter Bachmann, a failed counter-terrorist operative who is left trying to resurrect his glory through a rag tag team in Hamburg who keep tabs on the Islamic community and radical agents seeking to counter-act the Western World’s nihilistic setting, where sensual pleasures predominate the motivations of the culture through the profiteering motivations of the machineries of unprecedented merchandising sales. It is uncanny that the film projects a sex shop in the first minutes of the film, a certifiable disagreement between worldly faiths-such as Islam-denying selfish-gratifications, and a world centered about such stimulus amplification as in Germany, when failing to attend Church mass is no longer embarrassing; in fact, it is quite prideful in “elite” intellectual circles in the West, who have done away with God despite the fact their abhorrent ignorance of electrical motion in their machines is predicated on mathematically necessary action; a chain of causality which can only exist in the representation of an eternal mind alone.

The struggle Mr. Bachmann faces with a new Muslim introduced into the Hamburg community, who is seeking to recover blood money his father left him for an inheritance, is in the utility of this possible antagonist to Western Man supporting violence against him through his civil institutions, e.g. banking, e.g. travel, etc. And yet, how ironic it is, in the likes of Mr. Willem Defoe’s apathetic banking character, Tommy Brue, that these civil institutions, which have required centuries of promulgation, are continued by Western men for the most unrighteous ends; just to sustain a luxuriant living of Olympic Clubs, brand new automobiles, and glamorous residences. And yet, is this truly called living?

It is no wonder the Chechen, who can attain asylum status in Germany from a rebellious young attorney with nothing more endurably accomplishable in her life such as raising a family, has no use for over 10 million euro. His is a soul which is beyond the temptations of somatic distractions of the flesh. The ensuring drama is in how he can covertly donate these funds through Chechen charities to support his nation, while a portion of those funds may be routed towards purchasing missiles rather than hospital beds.

It is here where Mr. Bachmann’s under-handed ploys to redeem his honor are demonstrated in the film. Where he must turn a son against his father’s secret financing of Yemenite missile launchers through a shipping company. Is this justice? We are not given a meditation on the rightfulness of the answer, only a bit of self-certain cheekiness from the character played by Robin Wright, the American Martha Sullivan, that the secret agents are making the world “a safer place.” Meanwhile, each agencies own self-interest takes precedent in attempting to claim the honor of arresting a notable donor and representative of Islam in Germany, through the illicit banking transfers. The blindness to the desires of the agents in their own self-glorification goes unnoticed as Mr. Bachmann’s team must settle on being cosmic castaways to no fault of their own, as their plot is stolen from them. Redemption will have to wait for a society which is more dignified in its treatment of its bodies; to perfect them rather than degrade them is enlightenment.