"Hotel Lux" is a German 100-minute movie from 5 years ago written and directed by Leander Haußmann, who is kinda known for his movies here in Germany. The cast includes two big names, Michael Herbig and Jürgen Vogel, and Thekla Reuten as the female co-lead. She is probably more known in the Netherlands, where she originally comes from. So if you take a look at the awards this film won, then you will see that the German Film Awards got it right. This is merely a good work stylistically and visually. Art direction, costumes etc. are all pretty nicely done. But the story is not. The film moves back and forth between drama and comedy, something Haußmann usually does, without elaborating convincingly in either of these two genres. It is never a funny film. It is also never a dramatically relevant work. The only thing you learn from the film is probably because of the short comments about notable politicians from back then and yet these feel really cringeworthy and randomly included as almost none of these people play a major role in the film other than in the one scene they are depicted. This movie is like a history lesson that is gone wrong. It is stylish, hip and ambitious, but it offers absolutely nothing in terms of knowledge, relevance or quality filmmaking. Plus the performances are all quite forgettable. It becomes painfully obvious again that Herbig simply isn't good enough to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor. I do not recommend the watch. Thumbs down.
Review of Hotel Lux
