"Honig im Kopf" is the newest film written by, directed by ans'd starring German actor Til Schweiger. (Also one of his daughters plays a central character once again.) Just like in his films "Keinohrhasen" and "Zweiohrküken", the title is a metaphorical reference to a quote in the film. The main reason I watched this movie was Dieter Hallervorden. His "Sein letztes Rennen" (probably also why he was cast for this role here) is one of my favorite performances and films from last year and when I heard he will play a character here who suffers from dementia (aging gracefully just like in "Sein letztes Rennen"), I expected great things. I was not disappointed. Hallervorden is the heart and soul of the movie, but sadly there are some parts which keep me from describing this as a great viewing experience. One would be the many many scenes of vulgar humor which really hurt the emotional impact this film could have made. Maybe teenagers would find this funny, but I surely did not. It really hurts the dramatic plot if they randomly start talking about nuns doing nasty things with cucumbers. Then there's all kinds of obscene swearing only included for the sake of it and with no real purpose and some nude-related humor like the naked ass of an old man. The only thing of that kind was the peeing-into-the-fridge scene. I laughed about that a bit because it was so random.
Anyway, looking past that, the movie had some moments of greatness. All of these featured Hallervorden of course and these were his scenes with Schweiger's daughter, for example when he gives her the note or when he finally does not recognize her anymore. The final scene with the girl lying in the grass and the sheep noise was good closure too. What i did not like, but what is common with Schweiger's works is that even the very tiny roles are all cast with very known faces, at least here in Germany. That's not really necessary and they could have given the minor parts to lesser known actors instead of casting Sarnau, Kurtulus, Reinhardt, Liefers, Prückner or Thalbach.
It's a bit of a road movie as all characters in the film have to find their way somehow, emotionally, but also geographically. One of these 4 central characters is played by Schweiger himself and he was, once again, totally forgettable. The storyline with him and his wife was very forgettable and added almost nothing to the movie for me and they could have left out a lot of it in my opinion, so the film would not have run for much considerably longer than 2 hours. "The "I love you" moment which was supposed to be his emotional highlight really fell flat for me too and seemed to have come completely out of nowhere. His wife was played by Jeanette Hain. Admittedly she gives a better performance and also plays a more interesting character. I never knew where she was going. Her behavior early on made me think she will be a bit of an antagonist and finally leave Schweiger's character for good, but she did not. I even thought at one point Schweiger's character would actually get together with the woman working at the home for the elderly. Anyway, I felt her change from spiteful (including a hug based on schadenfreude) to caring daughter-in-law was not entirely credible. It was just too much of a transformation.
It is occasionally a cheesy film, but Hallervorden made it watchable. I found the way all the characters acted with so much compassion to Hallervorden's and Emma Schweiger's characters cringeworthy at times. And even if the film seemed vulgar only for the sake of being hip and trendy at times, I would recommend watching it. But you will have probably seen some of Schweiger's earlier work if you consider watching this and should make up your mind based on that if you want to see this one. There's nothing really new here that you have not seen in his previous works already I guess. His co-writer here worked on the "Traumhotel" movies which certainly did not help the matter. "Honig im Kopf" is not a bad film by any means, but should have been kept a bit more essential and less stereotypical. The music in this film could also be described like the movie itself: good, but not outstanding by any means.
Anyway, looking past that, the movie had some moments of greatness. All of these featured Hallervorden of course and these were his scenes with Schweiger's daughter, for example when he gives her the note or when he finally does not recognize her anymore. The final scene with the girl lying in the grass and the sheep noise was good closure too. What i did not like, but what is common with Schweiger's works is that even the very tiny roles are all cast with very known faces, at least here in Germany. That's not really necessary and they could have given the minor parts to lesser known actors instead of casting Sarnau, Kurtulus, Reinhardt, Liefers, Prückner or Thalbach.
It's a bit of a road movie as all characters in the film have to find their way somehow, emotionally, but also geographically. One of these 4 central characters is played by Schweiger himself and he was, once again, totally forgettable. The storyline with him and his wife was very forgettable and added almost nothing to the movie for me and they could have left out a lot of it in my opinion, so the film would not have run for much considerably longer than 2 hours. "The "I love you" moment which was supposed to be his emotional highlight really fell flat for me too and seemed to have come completely out of nowhere. His wife was played by Jeanette Hain. Admittedly she gives a better performance and also plays a more interesting character. I never knew where she was going. Her behavior early on made me think she will be a bit of an antagonist and finally leave Schweiger's character for good, but she did not. I even thought at one point Schweiger's character would actually get together with the woman working at the home for the elderly. Anyway, I felt her change from spiteful (including a hug based on schadenfreude) to caring daughter-in-law was not entirely credible. It was just too much of a transformation.
It is occasionally a cheesy film, but Hallervorden made it watchable. I found the way all the characters acted with so much compassion to Hallervorden's and Emma Schweiger's characters cringeworthy at times. And even if the film seemed vulgar only for the sake of being hip and trendy at times, I would recommend watching it. But you will have probably seen some of Schweiger's earlier work if you consider watching this and should make up your mind based on that if you want to see this one. There's nothing really new here that you have not seen in his previous works already I guess. His co-writer here worked on the "Traumhotel" movies which certainly did not help the matter. "Honig im Kopf" is not a bad film by any means, but should have been kept a bit more essential and less stereotypical. The music in this film could also be described like the movie itself: good, but not outstanding by any means.