"Die Welt der Wunderlichs" is a German 100-minute movie from this year and it hit cinemas very recently. It is the newest work from Dani Levy, one of the most successful Swiss filmmakers these days. And for his project here, he got some pretty big names to play the main characters, namely the Wunderlichs. These include lead actress Katharina Schüttler and the likes of Hannelore Elsner, Christiane Paul, Martin Feifel and Steffen Groth giving supporting performances. The main character's father is played by Peter Simonischek, the actor who gave a career-defining performance as Toni Erdmann this year. So from the acting perspective, there is a great deal of expertise in here and almost all the names have established themselves and deliver convincing portrayals here. With one exception: Ernst Wilhelm Rodriguez (pretty unique name), the child actor who plays Schüttler's character's son and I have no idea why Levy and his casting directors went for him. His line delivery is pretty bad from start to finish and there were a handful moments when it was painfully obviously that he was just reciting lines he had learned previously.
And sadly, there are more downsides to this film. One would be the way casting shows are included as something highly desirable and as a means to get a career going again, which has really nothing to do with reality and the main character should be smart enough to understand it. Of course, there were sequences when they depicted these shows as a bit critical and it is a happy ending that she did not get the ticket to the final show, but it was still too nice towards these, one of the biggest cancers on (German) television right now. Scenes showing us how amateurish these shows are with the boy being able to manipulate the main application during the show are fine, but it just did not go far enough for me in terms of criticism. Besides that, I felt that the film was at its best when it went for comedy. This is where Levy's script really shines and put a smile on my lips on several occasions. The more dramatic parts about family struggling and bonding did not work that well because I felt the film took itself a lot more seriously than it had any right to. But especially Simonischek has some brilliant comedic moments and I just could not take them seriously as sad, even if he plays a pretty sick character.
In addition, I believe that Schüttler with her work here has propelled herself into the group of the elite when it comes to female German actors between the age of 30 and 40. She almost makes the film also work from a dramatic perspective and has some really strong moments. Very nice portrayal from her and she managed the difficult task to give her character some true depth. Overall, about this film, it needs to be said that it is very much over the top from start to finish, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a not so good way. The script has some strengths, but no real greatness to it. It is the actors who make it work on most occasions. But there are also more than a handful fairly weak moments, like the very bizarre relationship between Paul's and Groth's character, which added almost nothing at all in terms of quality. Nonetheless, I still believe that the positive outweighs the negative here and I give it a cautious thumbs-up. Nowhere near what one could consider the best of the year, but fairly decent overall. Thumbs up.
And sadly, there are more downsides to this film. One would be the way casting shows are included as something highly desirable and as a means to get a career going again, which has really nothing to do with reality and the main character should be smart enough to understand it. Of course, there were sequences when they depicted these shows as a bit critical and it is a happy ending that she did not get the ticket to the final show, but it was still too nice towards these, one of the biggest cancers on (German) television right now. Scenes showing us how amateurish these shows are with the boy being able to manipulate the main application during the show are fine, but it just did not go far enough for me in terms of criticism. Besides that, I felt that the film was at its best when it went for comedy. This is where Levy's script really shines and put a smile on my lips on several occasions. The more dramatic parts about family struggling and bonding did not work that well because I felt the film took itself a lot more seriously than it had any right to. But especially Simonischek has some brilliant comedic moments and I just could not take them seriously as sad, even if he plays a pretty sick character.
In addition, I believe that Schüttler with her work here has propelled herself into the group of the elite when it comes to female German actors between the age of 30 and 40. She almost makes the film also work from a dramatic perspective and has some really strong moments. Very nice portrayal from her and she managed the difficult task to give her character some true depth. Overall, about this film, it needs to be said that it is very much over the top from start to finish, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a not so good way. The script has some strengths, but no real greatness to it. It is the actors who make it work on most occasions. But there are also more than a handful fairly weak moments, like the very bizarre relationship between Paul's and Groth's character, which added almost nothing at all in terms of quality. Nonetheless, I still believe that the positive outweighs the negative here and I give it a cautious thumbs-up. Nowhere near what one could consider the best of the year, but fairly decent overall. Thumbs up.
