The A.V. Club
Fortunately, The American Friend is often a first-rate Zimmermann movie. Ganz inhabits the mild-mannered picture framer with the soulful warmth that would serve him so well a decade later as the angel in Wenders’ Wings Of Desire, making Zimmermann an anxious, empathetic figure who turns to crime solely as a means of providing for his family. (Think Walter White during season one of Breaking Bad, before the slow transformation into Scarface.)
