Lola (Potente) receives a frantic phone call from her shady boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), who's lost a lot of money belonging to the mob. Lola has only twenty minutes to replace the cash, or it's lights out for Manni. Lola is the whole show, as competent and decisive as any Howard Hawks heroine, and (as the title implies) in constant breathless motion. The driving techno soundtrack completes the effect. Thrilling stuff. "Lola's like a human stun gun!"- Peter Rainer, New York Magazine.

She becomes obsessed with her mysterious savior and tracks him down. He wants nothing to do with her because of past romantic injuries and because he's in the midst of planning an intricate bank robbery. Her obsession leads to her involvement (it wouldn't be a movie otherwise) Potente's character doesn't evolve so much as she is revealed - introduced as the picture of calm maternal responsibility, but gradually shown to a less than perfect psychiatric nurse (performing petty sexual services for favorite patients, leading to predictable disruptions), and perhaps quite mad herself. The brightly lit modern asylum and clean small-town perfection of the nearby town give PRINCESS a surreal "trapped in amber" feel.