This is a 90-minute television biopic on the German "Pope of Literature", Marcel Reich-Ranicki. The film came out over six years ago and Reich-Ranicki died 2 years ago. He is played by Matthias Schweighöfer, one of Germany's most famous actors, but also somebody with a huge gap in terms of popularity and talent. I don't even think he is among Germany's best actors under 35 right now. His career relies entirely on mediocre romantic comedy films and sadly this is something so many want to see right now. Thumbs up to him for taking a more risky project here, but again he never came close to giving a great performance, even if the role had great prospect. Maybe this is also why he and the movie got some awards recognition. But it's really the makeup and partially the story which makes this one stand out. Germans just love (to make) movies on World War II, Jews and the ghetto. This one here has nothing that wasn't done (better) in the past already. The supporting players Schüttler, Groth and Król give solid performances and it would have been worse without them.
The film's director is actually Israeli-born and truly prolific in terms of films about Jews, the Middle East etc. He built his entire career on that. The writer, who adapted Reich-Ranicki's autobiography, came up with the script for "23", August Diehl's big breakthrough film and is also an experienced director himself. Actually he hasn't written a screenplay in the last 6 years since this movie here. The script certainly wasn't the film's biggest strength, especially the dialogs. Sometimes they really seemed to try so hard top get in as many information as possible on MRR for the audience that the conversation looked fairly ridiculous, like when he says that he never went to university. Useless inclusion anyway as they mentioned it again as a text message before the closing credits rolled in. Maybe they should have gone with a documentary movie instead. This way, I would not have felt also that if I did not know this was about Reich-Ranicki, it could also have been really about a fictitious character. Schweighöfer played Schiller, another writer, in the past as well, but serious roles just don't seem to fit him very well. Then again, funny roles don't either. As a whole, I hoped for more with this film. It was neither particularly interesting to watch, nor was the drama something that had me at the edge of my seat. Instead the movie occasionally seemed very try-hard and full of itself. Not recommended.
The film's director is actually Israeli-born and truly prolific in terms of films about Jews, the Middle East etc. He built his entire career on that. The writer, who adapted Reich-Ranicki's autobiography, came up with the script for "23", August Diehl's big breakthrough film and is also an experienced director himself. Actually he hasn't written a screenplay in the last 6 years since this movie here. The script certainly wasn't the film's biggest strength, especially the dialogs. Sometimes they really seemed to try so hard top get in as many information as possible on MRR for the audience that the conversation looked fairly ridiculous, like when he says that he never went to university. Useless inclusion anyway as they mentioned it again as a text message before the closing credits rolled in. Maybe they should have gone with a documentary movie instead. This way, I would not have felt also that if I did not know this was about Reich-Ranicki, it could also have been really about a fictitious character. Schweighöfer played Schiller, another writer, in the past as well, but serious roles just don't seem to fit him very well. Then again, funny roles don't either. As a whole, I hoped for more with this film. It was neither particularly interesting to watch, nor was the drama something that had me at the edge of my seat. Instead the movie occasionally seemed very try-hard and full of itself. Not recommended.