"Kater" or "Tomcat" is an Austrian German-language film from 2016 that is pretty long at 2 hours and here we got the second career effort by writer and director Händl Klaus. Don't be mistaken by the title and poster here as this one is not an animal documentary like Kedi, another 2016 film and that one actually is about cats. This one here is really not about cats at all, but the one cat that appears in it during the first half is just means to tell us about the 2 protagonists, a gay couple and they are the owners of the cat in here. Their sexual orientation really isn't much in the focus of the film and this one is not about sexual identification or anything as it could very well have been a man and a woman too. What is in the center though is their relationship from start to finish of this movie. It is an okay character study as a whole, even if I must say that it never really interested or even touched me as I hope it could and that's why all in all I find the awards recognition also exaggerated pretty much. It is a very slow and steady film with the exception of 2-3 haunting moments of escalation that change everything, but then again don't as we find out in the long run. Saying that not too much happens in here would be a bit of a lie and even if it was true, then this could still be a decent watch if the film delivers as a convincing character study and atmospheric full feature film. But in my opinion it comes short in most departments and is a pretty mediocre work with some sequences that felt shocking for the sake of it. Maybe it is also a bit too long for its own good ans with this running time it could have needed 1-2 decent supporting characters that we can care about and not just the couple in the center of it all. Have to give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
Review of Tomcat
