Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Ich bin dann mal weg" or "I'm Off Then" is a German 1.5-hour movie that was released in theaters for Christmas 2015. It is based on the autobiography by famous comedian Hape Kerkeling. People abroad will have no idea who he is, but here in Germany basically everybody know him. At one point in his career, it became obvious he needs a break from the hectic showbiz industry, so he decided to go on a recreational religious walk through Spain and later he wrote a book about it. This is the book that this film is based on, so we follow him during this journey. He is not playing himself though. Devid Striesow is the lead actor in here and German audiences will see familiar faces in Karoline Schuch, Martina Gedeck, Katharina Thalbach and Annette Frier. So yeah, the "female responsibility" is carried by several actresses, while Striesow is basically the only male actor with a significant role and significant screen time.I thought Striesow looks the part, so he was a good choice here. I also quite liked Schuch's performance. On Gedeck, I am not really that big. Nothing here we haven't seen from her before and I would have preferred the film to focus entirely on Kerkeling instead of her husband, her one-night-stands or her daughter. The amount of elaboration we had on Schuch's character (stunning-looking too) would have been perfectly enough, maybe find out something very basic like about her job etc., but Gedeck is obviously a star, so they wanted to give her more material I guess. Could have done without that. The director is Julia von Heinz and she worked with Schuch in the past already, 2 years ago on the equally good "Hannas Reise", a somewhat similar film compared to this one here, only with a female younger main character. The trio of writers that adapted Kerkeling's work is also extremely experienced and has worked on many known German films.All in all, I enjoyed the watch. It is a healthy mix of drama and comedy, even if, on some occasions, mostly the ones involving Gedeck's character, it takes itself a bit too seriously for my taste. It works best when it is 100% comedy with the usual Kerkeling brand of humor. Certainly one of the better German films of 2015 and a nice way to close the year from a cinematic perspective. I recommend the watch, even if I was also not too big on a lot of the film taking place during Kerkeling's youth. Thumbs up, mostly for Striesow and Schuch, who have also received some awards recognition and it's certainly deserving. Go check it out if you can. A somewhat different road movie.
