Here is a weirdly incoherent and very long aria of semi-comic dismay from white-liberal Europe, and from a Germany whose bold “Wir schaffen das” – or “We can handle this” – Angela Merkel-era attitude to refugees has turned to anxiety. Veteran German director Tom Tykwer has created a heavy-footed magical-realist romp lasting two hours and 40 minutes about a complicated extended family in Berlin whose painful lives are turned around by a magic refugee whose purpose is to salvage their happiness. The film twice uses Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody to provide a jukebox blast of energy – the second time at the very end, worryingly indicating that the classic track is being brought on to save the day because the film is out of ideas.
Lars Eidinger gives a muscular, unselfconscious performance as Tim, a thoroughly modern cool dad who writes advertising copy for environmentally conscious brands, cycles everywhere in the driving rain and has a disconcerting habit of stripping naked when he gets back to his bohemian apartment. Nicolette Krebitz plays his wife, Milena, who is trying to establish a community theatre in Africa with a German government grant. But their teen children, eco-protester Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer), who has just had an abortion, and VR gamer nerd Jon (Julius Gause) are unhappy. There is also Dio (Elyas Eldridge), Milena’s son by Godfrey (Toby Onwumere), with whom she co-parents.
When their cleaning lady drops dead one day in their kitchen, a very peculiar thigh-slapper of a comic moment that is evidently intended to satirise (and yet also ultimately forgive) their entitled prosperous arrogance, the family has to get someone else in; this is Syrian refugee Farrah (Tala Al Deen), who is wise and all-knowing, with a private grief in her own life.Farrah turns the family on to an experimental treatment for depression: a throbbing, flashing light you gaze into that helps your body to release endorphins. Tim’s family are coming into mystic alignment with Farrah’s …
There is quite a bit of energy in this film, but it’s shapeless and undirected, and seems to be making an unearned claim on our affectionate regard for how chaotically adorable and yet meaningful the whole thing is. The final sequence, though initially very striking, raises serious ideas and moods which the film itself is unable to absorb.
Source: theguardian.com
