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‘The Princess and the Warrior’ was German writer/director Tom Tykwer’s follow-up to his international smash-hit ‘Lola rennt’ (Run Lola Run). Unlike his prior film, it has a much more conventional story-line and linear narrative structure. It stars Franka Potente as Sissi, a nurse in a Psychiatric Hospital, who, through either fate or her own personal decisions, becomes involved with Bodo (Benno Furmann), a petty criminal with a….you’ll never guess… mysterious past.

Even though the film is told in linear fashion, it does go on little tangents that explore Bodo’s relationship with his deceased wife, Sissi’s experiences in the Psych Hospital where she works and lives, and a crime that Bodo and his brother Walter (Joachim Krol) are planning.

Like all of Tom Tykwer’s recent films, it is photographed beautifully by Frank Griebe, with most of the stand-out shots revolving around the scenery of Wuppertal, Germany. Tykwer loves the spectral overhead trains of the Schwebebahn Wuppertal and spends a lot of time showing the town off as we follow the winding paths of the trains above the cities rivers.

Ultimately, the film listfully arrives at its conclusion and ties everything up in a nice, albeit surreal, bow as the heroes, litterally, ride off into the sunset.

I am not sure if the film really serves much of a purpose, other than to show that Tykwer can make a slow and leisurely paced film that is the antithesis of ‘Run Lola Run.’ If so, it succeeds in that goal.

This film is an important part of Tykwer’s development as a great director, but I don’t think this film will warrant another viewing. I will, however, continue to be excited when Tykwer releases new projects. Keeping in the DISCARD pile.