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Heike Makatsch as Commissioner Ellen Berliner: Mother doesn't always have to be the best
Photo: Bettina Müller / SWR
A petrol station cashier was shot dead, the murder apparently on the account of a couple, the only witness is a young woman with visual impairment.
She can't describe faces, smells all the better.
There was the smell of an expensive perfume in the air at the crime scene.
So quickly with the investigating commissioner to the nearest beautician, sniff a fragrance stick.
At some point the cheaper perfumes are through without the witness's nose beating.
But there is still a fine drop under the counter.
“Vanilla Houd”, 249 euros, samples for free are not offered.
Whoever wants to smell has to pay.
Commissioner Ellen Berlinger (Heike Makatsch) advances the 249 euros and groans: "It's worth more than my car has a full tank." The witness (Henriette Nagel) recognizes the ode and asks in astonishment: "Why do you attack a gas station when you feel like that." can buy an expensive perfume? ”It sounds a bit as if she is describing the scent of freedom that she wants to breathe more of herself.
The smell of the murderess
That is the remarkable thing about this third SWR “crime scene” with Heike Makatsch as investigator Berlinger: The motif of the blind witness, known from numerous thrillers, who is in danger and can only perceive it auditory or olfactory, is staged against the grain.
Screenwriter Wolfgang Stauch - among other things, wrote the elaborately tricky nurse »crime scene« with Katharina Marie Schubert - plays with the genre semantics: the smell of the murderess is not a threat here, but a promise.
Because the blind witness is attracted to the owner of the perfume and the alleged nonconformity.
When the murderess visits the witness, the witness gets in close contact with her: the embrace of the threat as a means of liberation, this daring experimental arrangement (director: Ute Wieland) works surprisingly well over stretches.
The very sporadic "crime scenes" with Heike Makatsch are not necessarily a guarantee of quality so far.
In 2016 there was a first episode with Makatsch from Freiburg, in 2018 her commissioner Berlinger was relocated to Mainz.
The editorial team and the leading actress probably did not always agree on where to go with the character, not only in geographical terms, but also in family terms.
Mother doesn't always have to be the best
The Commissioner has a nearly grown daughter who lives elsewhere and a young daughter who she cannot develop the same attention to as she does to her work. With this eternal alienation from her own motherhood role, the Berlinger turns a little in circles, the character's structure in family matters has so far remained confused. The situation is now resolved in the third »Tatort« episode. The ex of the homeless inspector comes to visit from Liverpool, Berlinger goes to bed with him again and then thinks about whether she should give him the little daughter to England because she could possibly grow up there more securely. An interesting twist to draw a modern female investigator: Here she does not have to have her ability to empathize certified bythat in addition to the strong commissioner, she is also the strong mother.
A blind witness drawn to the violence.
A commissioner who seems to love her work more than her child: These are blatantly pointed characters - but who would have deserved a blatant and pointed portrayal.
With that, however, there is a considerable problem in some places.
So the violent outburst of the blind witness meanwhile steers towards a »pulp fiction« -like unleashing - which is then cashed in by an all too hesitant, all too moral staging.
This time it will not be two or three years until the next »Tatort« with Heike Makatsch, a fourth episode with her is already being shot.
Perhaps then your commissioner Ellen Berlinger will really pick up speed.
Rating:
6 out of 10 points
"Tatort: Blind Date",
Sunday, 8:15 pm, Das Erste