The main reason because of which I decided to watch "Familienfest" was basically that I watched "Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer" and it was made by Lars Kraume as well, the Italian-born filmmaker who also wrote and directed this film here. I was truly amazed by that movie, but not so much by this one here. Then again, this film here has no actor like Burghart Klaußner in its cast (no offense to Halmer). "Familienfest" runs for pretty much exactly 90 minutes and features an ensemble cast of 9 actors if I counted correctly.
A renowned musician celebrates his 70th birthday and has invited his ex-wife and his 3 sons who all bring their significant other. And as respectable and flawless as his career may have been, this can certainly not be said about his personal life in terms of his previous marriage and the way he brought up his sons. The strength of this film is probably the acting. Even if there is not a single performance that really wowed me, I must say that all cast members did a decent job with what they were given. Only Michaela May had a weak moment occasionally, but really she wasn't given that much to work with anyway. Same goes for Nele Müller-Stofen.
Unfortunately, there is also a lot wrong with this movie. I must say that I felt the second half was generally weaker than the first and towards the end it all crumbled, which makes it difficult to take this serious as one of the best German 2015 movies. First of all, I have to criticize the script overall. It was so over-the-top and lacked realism and credibility from start to finish. Are we really supposed that the 70th birthday of a man is at the very same time that one of his sons is about to die from cancer, another son has major debts with some truly dangerous gangsters and the last son is in a homosexual relationship with somebody he plans to adopt a child with and yet his father does not even know the other guy (who looked like Tobey Maguire's identical twin by the way). Another problem was, like I wrote earlier, the ending. As if all the drama I just mentioned wasn't enough already they took it to the next level with this one. I must say that around minute 75 this movie lost all credibility for me and it was sacrificed for incredibly lame tear-jerk coincidences. Well.. it worked on most of the audience during my viewing, so maybe it's just me. And honestly, the way 2 of the 3 sons behaved towards their dad (which was justified by the way the dad behaved), I am truly shocked they even came to visit him at all, especially with the stories about violent childhoods brought up. And don't even get me started on the way Kraume tried to excuse Halmer's character's actions at the end, by mentioning his own dad and by how he tries to bond with the 2 surviving sons.
I must say that this could have been a really good movie, but instead it just turned out mediocre and occasionally decent. really a bit of a waste in terms of the cast. This is a 100% drama, there are comedic moments occasionally, but anybody who considered this a dark comedy has not understood a thing about this film, which probably applies to many of the viewers today in my theater judging by their constant laughing. I guess that made it easier for them to deal with the more serious parts. However, this is a fault of the audience and not of Kraume or any of the cast members. All in all, an okay watch. Nothing more, nothing less and occasionally I had the feeling Kraume was heavily inspired by "August: Osage County", only that this one is mostly about the male family members.
A renowned musician celebrates his 70th birthday and has invited his ex-wife and his 3 sons who all bring their significant other. And as respectable and flawless as his career may have been, this can certainly not be said about his personal life in terms of his previous marriage and the way he brought up his sons. The strength of this film is probably the acting. Even if there is not a single performance that really wowed me, I must say that all cast members did a decent job with what they were given. Only Michaela May had a weak moment occasionally, but really she wasn't given that much to work with anyway. Same goes for Nele Müller-Stofen.
Unfortunately, there is also a lot wrong with this movie. I must say that I felt the second half was generally weaker than the first and towards the end it all crumbled, which makes it difficult to take this serious as one of the best German 2015 movies. First of all, I have to criticize the script overall. It was so over-the-top and lacked realism and credibility from start to finish. Are we really supposed that the 70th birthday of a man is at the very same time that one of his sons is about to die from cancer, another son has major debts with some truly dangerous gangsters and the last son is in a homosexual relationship with somebody he plans to adopt a child with and yet his father does not even know the other guy (who looked like Tobey Maguire's identical twin by the way). Another problem was, like I wrote earlier, the ending. As if all the drama I just mentioned wasn't enough already they took it to the next level with this one. I must say that around minute 75 this movie lost all credibility for me and it was sacrificed for incredibly lame tear-jerk coincidences. Well.. it worked on most of the audience during my viewing, so maybe it's just me. And honestly, the way 2 of the 3 sons behaved towards their dad (which was justified by the way the dad behaved), I am truly shocked they even came to visit him at all, especially with the stories about violent childhoods brought up. And don't even get me started on the way Kraume tried to excuse Halmer's character's actions at the end, by mentioning his own dad and by how he tries to bond with the 2 surviving sons.
I must say that this could have been a really good movie, but instead it just turned out mediocre and occasionally decent. really a bit of a waste in terms of the cast. This is a 100% drama, there are comedic moments occasionally, but anybody who considered this a dark comedy has not understood a thing about this film, which probably applies to many of the viewers today in my theater judging by their constant laughing. I guess that made it easier for them to deal with the more serious parts. However, this is a fault of the audience and not of Kraume or any of the cast members. All in all, an okay watch. Nothing more, nothing less and occasionally I had the feeling Kraume was heavily inspired by "August: Osage County", only that this one is mostly about the male family members.