"The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick" is a unique experience. Alternately strange, boring, and fascinating, it's the story of a professional German football goalie who simply walks off the playing field one day and proceeds to roam the city idly, stopping to pick up newspapers (to check the scores), watch movies, loiter around, and commit the random murder of a ticket-girl at the cinema he frequents. This is the first half of the film. The second half of the film is a journey to the country to attempt to reconcile things with an old girlfriend. He does not commit another murder. His homicide is never explained. He just does it and moves on, and it is in this respect Wenders' film is in a class by itself. Did the guy hate women? Did he have a s***ty childhood? Who cares? With its unwillingness to rationalize or justify the main characters' actions, this film completely sets itself apart from the dull psycho-serial killer genre and offers a new way to depict a man gone mad. It's a great film, though not for the attention-span challenged, and has a chillingly effective minimalist score. The ending is sublime.
