After Barbara Albert's latest film opens with a scene where a single butterfly flaps its wings, we meet a woman named Muna (Kathrin Resetarits) who is on her way back home to her family in Austria after a vacation in Brazil. Her plane crashes while en route, though somehow Muna defies all odds and survives the ordeal.

Six years after the crash we find Kathrin married to Andreas (George Friedrich) and together they have a daughter named Yvonne (Deborah Ten Brink). One night while out a dance club, Kathrine has another accident, this time a head on collision with a car full of teenagers. This time, Kathrine is not so lucky and she doesn't make it out of this one alive.

The driver at fault is a young man named Kai (Dominik Hartel), who also managed to paralyze one of the passengers in his car, his girlfriend no less, with his reckless driving. This accident sets off a domino effect that ripples throughout the cast of supporting characters affected by the car crash. Andreas has a very limp affair with his late wife's best friend Andrea (Ursula Strauss), and guilt from Dominik's past affects him again concerning the demise of his brother a few years earlier.

Free Radicals is an interesting take on the 'butterfly effect' theory. Director Barbara Albert does a fine job of demonstrating how one single incident can affect so many people in so many different ways and because of the varied motifs she works into the film, it plays off as a horror film-arthouse film-serious drama-sex film hybrid of sorts. While this makes for some interesting visuals and well thought out set pieces, as a whole, the film lacks a real point. We all know that life is fragile and that our actions can ripple throughout the lives of those we know and through them into the lives of those we don't know. It's hardly breaking new ground to state this, and unfortunately that's all that the film really seems to be trying to say here.

Before I give you the impression that the film is worthless, please be assured it is not – there are some remarkable accomplishments here – it's just that the story doesn't do anything except paint a depressing portrait of some very unfortunate people and their crappy life experiences. If that was the point, then fair enough, I guess the film went over my head, but there are moments here and there where the film alludes to there being more to it than that, simple moments like when some of the characters are singing along to a favorite song and demonstrating a subtle lust for life. Unfortunately the script doesn't develop enough of that to provide a suitable contrast to the moroseness that permeates the movie.

That being said, Free Radicals is still worth a look. The performances by all of the key players are great, and the cinematography by Martin Gschlacht does a great job of portraying the moods and emotions that the characters are experiencing in a very stylish and poignant manner.

Video:

Kino has a pretty solid reputation for producing good looking DVDs of obscure/arthouse films, and their release of Free Radicals continues that tradition. The anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen transfer looks very solid with only the mildest instances of print damage appearing in the form of a speck here and there. The colors look pretty good, and they come across nicely and distinctly except in a couple of scenes where they look to be intentionally muted somewhat. Edge enhancement is minimal and there are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts. Black levels stay pretty solid and don't break up or pixelate. All in all, a nice transfer.