Kartik Sudershan (Follow us on Twitter | Instagram)
Viktor Steiner (David Kross) grows up watching his father, a struggling painter, lose everything to the Tax office, while his mother abandons them for a wealthier man. Determined to escape his past, Viktor moves to Berlin with dreams of striking it rich. Armed with a natural sales talent and burning ambition, he dives headfirst into the con game.
In his first scam, Viktor fakes his identity to rent a luxury penthouse, subletting it to dozens of immigrant workers for a tidy profit. Along the way, he meets Gerry (Frederick Lau), who spots Viktor’s potential as a con artist and brings him into the fold. Together with Janina (Nicole Kleber), a bank insider, they form a scam trio, targeting auctions, banks, and gullible buyers by inflating real estate prices. Their schemes pay off, and soon, they’re living large—until cracks start to show.
While romance blooms between Viktor and Janina, the film’s thrilling con game starts to feel familiar. The trio’s downfall comes when Janina discovers Viktor’s infidelity. She turns him in, securing her own suspended sentence, and Viktor finds himself behind bars. In the end, Janina helps him reunite with his daughter, and start his life afresh.
While Rising High has the bones of a classic con film, it lacks the tension and detail that made The Wolf of Wall Street so riveting. There’s no real edge-of-your-seat excitement here. Nicole Kleber shines, but David Kross struggles to sell Viktor as a charming master manipulator. With a weak storyline and middling performances, the film stumbles to a 6/10.
You can stream the film on Netflix.
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