Honig im Kopf

A beautifully filmed but ultimately disappointing film. The first hour, watching an utterly clueless couple in complete denial about the mental state of the husband's father isn't funny - it's painful and disturbing. The saving grace is that this is probably how so many people really do try to deal with a loved one with dementia. Apparently no one in the family knows how to look up more information on the Internet about dementia and caregiving. No idea whatsoever as to why the husband stays with the wife, who is completely unsympathetic. The grand-daughter and grandfather are charming - but that no one intervenes when, say, they see this young child removing this old man's pants on a train is just unbelievable. The film is worth watching to explain to someone what dementia can look like, but it is NOT a good film for explaining how to care for someone with such (except to say "Here's what NOT to do.").

The best about this German movie who was one of the biggest hits in 2014 are some of the performances. I always thought Hallervorden to be a good actor even in his often unfunny 70ies and 80ies comedies. Jeanette Hain is also good as the antagonist. Schweiger himself has made worse and better movies in the past. In the last years he became notorious for putting his friends and kids in his movies. Same here, but his daughter Emma is at least not as annoying as her elder sister Luna who also gets shoehorned in many of his movies. First off, the movie about a little girl and her grandfather, who has got Alzheimer disease, is just a bit too long. I think this movie could easily be 30 minutes shorter. In my opinion the movie shows quite good what Alzheimer does despite it is not in all details realistic. But Schweiger again ruins the portrayal of his main character by his crude style of humour. Here, for example, the main character Armandus is fond of grabbing tits or pees in the fridge. So you get wrongly the impression this may have not been a good man before he became demented.

That's his character might not remember it. Dieter (or Didi as he's known in Germany) Hallervorden is a talented actor and he pulls off this role, which is a touch one to pull off. Is it unrealistic and does the movie draw too many cheap jokes? Yes it does, but with Hallervorden in the middle of it, acting his way out, even when you think it's impossible to salvage anything from what is happening, you can forgive such things.

The girl (daughter of Schweiger) is better in this, than she was in previous roles she got through her father. That doesn't mean she evolved into an actress yet, but let's give her the benefit of doubt and maybe she'll manage (some would argue, that it won't be hard to overshadow any "acting talent" her father has, but that's a different story). If you don't mind how over the top this is and how silly most of it is, it actually kind of works (which surprised me a little bit)

I totally agree with Meta Pomieske and other reviewers who gave this movie one star. I lasted 20 min, may be,just could not take it any longer. First of all nothing is realistic in this movie and it is on the edge of being an absurdous one. The girl was seriously overacting in my opinion,her father a talented actor, was underacting, they made an idiot of the senile grandpa. Everything looked and sounded faked and forced. The movie starts with an underage girl traveling by train with a senile old man hugging a soft toy and it is presented as nothing is wrong with it. Then she allegedly overlooks his absence. Give me a break.

Thanks to the reviews of AccessCardRequired and feyza-balak for pointing out some of the astonishing weaknesses of "Honig im Kopf". In addition to that: The problem of the editing is not just about the film's length in general and the louche number of "subplots" (which are more or less excuse for showing the audience proudly the desire of almost every known actor and celebrity in Germany to be a part in a new Til Schweiger movie at least for a second. It seems to be the latest fashion...). Though the story itself urges for intimate scenes where the actors have space to show their talent in favor of their role and the scene, it's high-speed edited in a unnecessary way I've barely seen before. Even the most simple dialog between three people there's hardly one image that stands longer than two seconds. It seems like no one is trusting the impact of the story here. Why else should you cut a quite relaxed dialog like it's an action movie's final car chase? "Honig im Kopf" is a perfect example for what happened to a part of Germany's filmmaking in consequence of 30 years of (bad) commercial TV: it's not about telling a story anymore, true to it's idea, it's characters. It's just about creating a chain of small plot points which have to peak in something that is supposed to be "highly emotional" oder "just funny". The rest is eye-pleasing: interior design out of the cheesiest life style magazines, spectacular shooting locations and of course: super expensive super-slow-mo-camera from time to time just to watch parents and child reunion like they show football-players these days, celebrating themselves after they managed to score. The sad thing is - no one of the teams seems to see or care, though they all did their job far better before (like in "Kokowääh", the first one. the sequel was hell) . And of course: If there'd be anybody out there who could tell Til what kind of path he's walking down, he could easily say: "What do you want? Almost 7 Million Germans went to see my movie, they cried and laughed. So get lost, stupid artsy fartsy guy!" So after all: Is it just a matter of taste? No it isn't. It's a matter of success, that's eating itself. What comes out of that still might look like success, and 30 years of fly-breeding might give you the impression that it's still a success, but if you just take your time - little more than 2 seconds, and check your senses you will realize the smell. Til doesn't seem to have nor time nor interest - no wonder, he's shooting film after film. Even his character here is like that: After Tilda burnt half of the super high class kitchen, he comes home and instead of taking a breath and wondering about the likely smell, his wife has to explain where all this soot is coming from. In it's mixture of lowest level storytelling, high level emotionalizing and inhibited jokes which mostly refer to farting and flippancy - here you have the wiedergänger of the infamous regular UFA-entertainment from once upon a time...