Horst_In_Translation Review of Vaya con Dios

Vaya con Dios (2002)

Memorable title and visually okay, but beyond that completely forgettable film

[4/10 · 20 June 2017]

"Vaya con Dios" is a German movie from 2002 (so it has its 15th anniversary this year) that runs for 105 minutes approximately and was written and directed by Zoltan Spirandelli. This is probably his most known work as of this day and a lot of that also has to do with the fact that the lead actor here is Daniel Brühl, maybe Germany's biggest star in Hollywood right now (if who don't count Austrian 2-time Oscar winner Chrostoph Waltz). He was still in his early/mid 20s back then, but it was an amazing year for Brühl career-wise, perhaps even his best. However, this does not mean we have a great film here admittedly. But this should be no surprise looking at Spirandelli's other work to be honest. it may sound interesting and the execution may not always be disappointing, but as a whole I don't think the premise was elaborated on in a way where I would say this is actually a quality movie. The focus is on a trio of monks on their way to Italy where they are trying to find a new monastery that they can pay for financially. This is mostly comedy with occasional romance as well. First cast here is Michael Gwisdek and in my opinion he does nothing to justify this fact. The film is clearly much more about Brühl's character, but then again I am not a great Gwisdek fan at all and always found him very overrated. the story has a decent moment here and there, but I still felt that there are a handful of lengths and this film may have worked better without lots of the unimportant stuff with a runtime of 80 minutes perhaps. Brühl does what he can, but eventually the only thing remarkable/memorable about him is probably his haircut. Visually, with sets and costumes, the film is okay. This is probably also the strongest area, but not because it is any kind of great, but because the rest is entirely forgettable. This is nowhere near the level of the new Scorsese film about two monks ("Silence"). That's the one you want to check out. This one here is the one you want to skip.