"Kühn hat zu tun" is a German television film from 2019, January 2019 in fact, so this one is slightly over two years old now. The title means translated "Kühn has a lot to do" and Kühn is of of course the man you see on the photo, but I will get to that later on. What you also see on the photo is that this film premiered during prime time and while it may not be as bad as a lot of the other stuff ARD has released over the years, it is still not a good watch by any means, at best mediocre, but frequently also fairly weak. The film runs for under 1.5 hours as they usually do and the director is Ralf Huettner, a pretty experienced filmmaker who has been active since the 1980s already. Take a look at his body of work and you will find early collaborartions with Helge Schneider, Tim Gerhardt and others. His most known work, however, is perhaps "Vincent will Meer", a movie that was really successful at the German Film Awards that year, even if all the attention went to Florian David Fitz and not to the considerably older Huettne, who is still not even close to being a big name, which may also explain why he has directed these terrible Zimmer mit Stall movies lately. This one here is certainly a bit better than those. This is based on a novel by Jan Weiler and several of Weiler's work have been turned into films and series already, so no surprise this got made. There are also other Kühn novels out there and I would not be surprised if those get turned into films as well. I mean this one here is not really a success if we look at the imdb rating, but this has never stopped them or anything. Huettner sometimes writes screenplays for his films, but not always and this time he didn't. They got Volker Einrauch for that, who is 70 now already and started writing for films 30 years ago, but since then has not been as prolific as you might think with one project every two years or so. Still not too shabby.
The lead actor here is Thomas Loibl of course. He is alright. Not super talented, but a decent actor and I think he has some range and he also definitely has recognition value, so I can see why he managed to have a breakthrough and also why he got picked for this film, maybe even for the sequels coming up. I am sure that if they continue, they will want to have him on board and he probably won't reject the offer. There are other fairly successful actors and familiar faces in here. I will just mention a few of them: Trystan Pütter (memorable name) I have come across in other projects and he plays a bit of a character with an ambiguous relationship towards the main character as we find out during the aftermath of this violent escalation scene with the right-wing fella. But he is not an antagonist as we see during the final statement too that kinda solved this mess. Magically and not too realistically you could say. But I will speak about the contents and flaws later on. Katharina Schlothauer is a bit of a stunner I'd say and she could be a regular with her role if they make further films. Kim Riedle managed an unconventional German Film Award nomination not too long ago and this also shows that even the most successful big screen actors still return to the small screen, even for supporting roles. Then again, the way the most acclaimed big screen releases are perceived here in Germany could not be any more different compared to how they are perceived in America. Oliver Stokowski is always easy to recognize for sure, even if he did not really have the material to shine here. Then again, almost nobody did. Stadlober for example, once a big teenage star here in my country, only has pretty much one scene and same applies Lisa Wagner who was his on-screen wife here if I remember correctly. I was surprised she was not featured more in here. I mean she is not super famous or anything, but she has her own crime series. Maybe that's the reason. They did not want her to steal too much attention.
Wagner's crime series has parallels with this one here and many other crime series. Following the example of the Münster Tatort movies and their massive success, you almost never find crime films/series anymore that do not have the slightest bit of comedy, but are super serious. This one here does have comedic moments as well, but it is not even close to being as entertaining as for example the Eberhofer crime movies that are probably my favorites if we are looking at the genre and focus on films from my country. These are so hilarious. This one here not so much. They really tried all they could though. But moments like the protagonist's wild hair on one occasion or the protagonist's passive drooling over a female character (not his wife) or the talk about adult films on one occasion were just not really that smart or creative or entertaining to make me laugh the way Eberhofer manages. I am not sure if the adaptation here is the problem or if the issue is already with Weiler's base material. Have not read the book(s) and after seeing this film here, I also do not feel particularly motivated to do so. One thing that bothered me a bit is that the writer apparently felt the need to also deliver a bit on the politically correct perspective and include some evil Nazi guy in here who does not only manage to attract the protagonist's son, but also gets into a heated (almost) fight with Kühn himself. And as a consequence gets injured. I already mentioned that I thought that was unrealistic. I mean come on what do we have here. A police officer, actually one with a really solid job and not just a simple police officer, while at work physically assaults this man in front of almost 20 witnesses who all seem to friends or followers of the victim of the attack. Hard to believe that this is not the end for Kühn's career. Maybe it would have been better if it was if the following films are not better than this one here. But yeah, the comment at the end by Pütter's character is definitely not enough justification for him keeping his job and even getting out of all this unharmed after previous threats (again from Pütter's character) that he could even lose his pension.
I think one of the best moments of the movie was the final confrontation scene with the actual killer and even if you have not read the book, you could guess it's him. Their little walk together was alright and kinda tense to watch until the bad guy gets killed. Again, how it unfolded did not feel too realistic. I mean come on, Kühn has managed a solid career with the force as I stated earlier and what does he do? Duck away and rely on somebody else taking the killshot? Please. Also with a reaction like that, maybe he would lose his job or at least get a less significant job with the force in real life. Also not an issue here, just like how he has no ppartner with him for some reason. Like ever. This dramatic ending felt as uninspired as, immediately afterwards, the little joke about challenges at home in the end when something is missing. They wanted to close the film on the less serious side this way, but it simply wasn't funny at all. The final shot was maybe a connection to the sequel? We'll see. Or maybe you know if you have read the books. One thing that also must be said is that they kept it light here. The blood you see on the poster as well as the killshot at the end were among the more serious (more graphic) moments. But for example we also have a girl being abducted and nothing happened to her. No sexual abuse. No other physical harm. Nothing. They clearly did not want to offend anybody. There was also no steamy sex implied as you would have seen it on "A Serious Man" or Eberhofer films. Like this movie here takes zero risks and that is the reason for its downfall eventually. Very disappointing. It's not a failure, but the good moments are just too rare. And keep in mind, if you include highly unrealistic stuff like you finding a dead boy really close to the protagonist's home (something that happens once in a life time or zero times more likely for most people), then you must deliver in other fields. But the filmmakers actually seemed to have the intention here to come up with a realistic crime story in fact and this is where they came really short. It was hoghly flawed from this perspective.
Finally, the good news here is that the cast was good enough for a much better movie and I have the feeling that, if they make a second film and maybe even a third, they will still get good enough actors to deliver quality. But the script needs to be better. They simply cannot get away with the protagonist boringly asking one character after the next where they were at a specific time when a crime happened until only one stays basically and he is revealed as the bad guy. I don't even care about the suspense. I am perfectly fine for example with the idea of telling us right at the very start who the bad guy is as long as it is an entertaining watch. This one here is no such thing. The soundtrack was alright I guess. I have seen, no heard worse many times on other occasions. It does not try to be too funny or too pseudo dramatic really, so they can keep going with the composer they had here. I guess this is pretty much it then. A final wish i got that I also implied earlier already is also that it would be nice if they do away with the political correctness. Or if said political correctness is already an ingredient of the base material, then leave it out of those movies. Yoou have to entertain the audience. You don't have to send them your political agenda. If I want to see Nazi hunter films, I pick Tarantino. Thank you. Overall, the outcome here is just too bland for a positive recommendation and it's not even close. The tension in the final scene with killer and cop cannot make me forget about all the slow mediocrity from before that. This is a film that you wanna skip and there is really a lot of room to improve. If they don't manage, then they should stop with the Kühn movies.
The lead actor here is Thomas Loibl of course. He is alright. Not super talented, but a decent actor and I think he has some range and he also definitely has recognition value, so I can see why he managed to have a breakthrough and also why he got picked for this film, maybe even for the sequels coming up. I am sure that if they continue, they will want to have him on board and he probably won't reject the offer. There are other fairly successful actors and familiar faces in here. I will just mention a few of them: Trystan Pütter (memorable name) I have come across in other projects and he plays a bit of a character with an ambiguous relationship towards the main character as we find out during the aftermath of this violent escalation scene with the right-wing fella. But he is not an antagonist as we see during the final statement too that kinda solved this mess. Magically and not too realistically you could say. But I will speak about the contents and flaws later on. Katharina Schlothauer is a bit of a stunner I'd say and she could be a regular with her role if they make further films. Kim Riedle managed an unconventional German Film Award nomination not too long ago and this also shows that even the most successful big screen actors still return to the small screen, even for supporting roles. Then again, the way the most acclaimed big screen releases are perceived here in Germany could not be any more different compared to how they are perceived in America. Oliver Stokowski is always easy to recognize for sure, even if he did not really have the material to shine here. Then again, almost nobody did. Stadlober for example, once a big teenage star here in my country, only has pretty much one scene and same applies Lisa Wagner who was his on-screen wife here if I remember correctly. I was surprised she was not featured more in here. I mean she is not super famous or anything, but she has her own crime series. Maybe that's the reason. They did not want her to steal too much attention.
Wagner's crime series has parallels with this one here and many other crime series. Following the example of the Münster Tatort movies and their massive success, you almost never find crime films/series anymore that do not have the slightest bit of comedy, but are super serious. This one here does have comedic moments as well, but it is not even close to being as entertaining as for example the Eberhofer crime movies that are probably my favorites if we are looking at the genre and focus on films from my country. These are so hilarious. This one here not so much. They really tried all they could though. But moments like the protagonist's wild hair on one occasion or the protagonist's passive drooling over a female character (not his wife) or the talk about adult films on one occasion were just not really that smart or creative or entertaining to make me laugh the way Eberhofer manages. I am not sure if the adaptation here is the problem or if the issue is already with Weiler's base material. Have not read the book(s) and after seeing this film here, I also do not feel particularly motivated to do so. One thing that bothered me a bit is that the writer apparently felt the need to also deliver a bit on the politically correct perspective and include some evil Nazi guy in here who does not only manage to attract the protagonist's son, but also gets into a heated (almost) fight with Kühn himself. And as a consequence gets injured. I already mentioned that I thought that was unrealistic. I mean come on what do we have here. A police officer, actually one with a really solid job and not just a simple police officer, while at work physically assaults this man in front of almost 20 witnesses who all seem to friends or followers of the victim of the attack. Hard to believe that this is not the end for Kühn's career. Maybe it would have been better if it was if the following films are not better than this one here. But yeah, the comment at the end by Pütter's character is definitely not enough justification for him keeping his job and even getting out of all this unharmed after previous threats (again from Pütter's character) that he could even lose his pension.
I think one of the best moments of the movie was the final confrontation scene with the actual killer and even if you have not read the book, you could guess it's him. Their little walk together was alright and kinda tense to watch until the bad guy gets killed. Again, how it unfolded did not feel too realistic. I mean come on, Kühn has managed a solid career with the force as I stated earlier and what does he do? Duck away and rely on somebody else taking the killshot? Please. Also with a reaction like that, maybe he would lose his job or at least get a less significant job with the force in real life. Also not an issue here, just like how he has no ppartner with him for some reason. Like ever. This dramatic ending felt as uninspired as, immediately afterwards, the little joke about challenges at home in the end when something is missing. They wanted to close the film on the less serious side this way, but it simply wasn't funny at all. The final shot was maybe a connection to the sequel? We'll see. Or maybe you know if you have read the books. One thing that also must be said is that they kept it light here. The blood you see on the poster as well as the killshot at the end were among the more serious (more graphic) moments. But for example we also have a girl being abducted and nothing happened to her. No sexual abuse. No other physical harm. Nothing. They clearly did not want to offend anybody. There was also no steamy sex implied as you would have seen it on "A Serious Man" or Eberhofer films. Like this movie here takes zero risks and that is the reason for its downfall eventually. Very disappointing. It's not a failure, but the good moments are just too rare. And keep in mind, if you include highly unrealistic stuff like you finding a dead boy really close to the protagonist's home (something that happens once in a life time or zero times more likely for most people), then you must deliver in other fields. But the filmmakers actually seemed to have the intention here to come up with a realistic crime story in fact and this is where they came really short. It was hoghly flawed from this perspective.
Finally, the good news here is that the cast was good enough for a much better movie and I have the feeling that, if they make a second film and maybe even a third, they will still get good enough actors to deliver quality. But the script needs to be better. They simply cannot get away with the protagonist boringly asking one character after the next where they were at a specific time when a crime happened until only one stays basically and he is revealed as the bad guy. I don't even care about the suspense. I am perfectly fine for example with the idea of telling us right at the very start who the bad guy is as long as it is an entertaining watch. This one here is no such thing. The soundtrack was alright I guess. I have seen, no heard worse many times on other occasions. It does not try to be too funny or too pseudo dramatic really, so they can keep going with the composer they had here. I guess this is pretty much it then. A final wish i got that I also implied earlier already is also that it would be nice if they do away with the political correctness. Or if said political correctness is already an ingredient of the base material, then leave it out of those movies. Yoou have to entertain the audience. You don't have to send them your political agenda. If I want to see Nazi hunter films, I pick Tarantino. Thank you. Overall, the outcome here is just too bland for a positive recommendation and it's not even close. The tension in the final scene with killer and cop cannot make me forget about all the slow mediocrity from before that. This is a film that you wanna skip and there is really a lot of room to improve. If they don't manage, then they should stop with the Kühn movies.
