"Ein Tick anders" or "Alive and Ticking" is a German live action movie from 2011, so this one had its 5th anniversary last year. It runs for 1.5 hours roughly and is the most recent and most known release by writer and director Andi Rogenhagen so far. It is also the second career performance by actress Jasna Fritzi Bauer and probably the one that allowed her to break through in the German film industry. This film is about the illness Tourette Syndrome and the film actually acts as if almost nobody (except people working or studying in the field of medicine) has heard of this and this did confuse me quite a bit as I am fairly certain that Tourette is something most people have heard of and also know the symptoms and this was definitely already true in 2011. So it was one aspect I disliked in here that the film basically treats audience members like children, also with the explanation about the French doctor very early on. And apart from that, there are more reasons why this is a deeply flawed film. They try so hard to make it look realistic and normal etc. and in terms of the illness to depict a person with this illness who is representing everybody with the illness.
But this is not the case. Not at all. This film has nothing to do with realism. When was the last time a Tourette patient found a suitcase with a million dollars or so. Or when was the last time a Tourette patient sits under a table and fights so hard to not say something, so that the guy sitting at the desk won't recognize him/her. And about the illness itself: it never really felt credible to me to be honest. I don't think this was JFB's fault at all who absolutely elevated the material here, but the fault of the script. The moments when she says something (usually in conversations with strangers) and the exact contents of what she says clearly felt included 100% for comedic purpose. And not even really intelligent comedic purpose. Just the stuff where you ask yourself if it is okay to laugh if you are a very politically correct person. So the element of awkwardness is certainly in here. But it's nothing that is a pro for this film. Overall, thumbs up for Bauer here and I can see why she is having the career she is having now as around the age of 20 or 21 she gives a pretty interesting performance and makes audiences pay less attention to the flaws of this film. But it is just too many to entirely ignore them. And that's why I give this film a thumbs-down. Don't watch. The supporting cast includes some solid names (Trautmannsdorff, Kobus...), but they are wasted as well for gimmicky or completely insignificant characters. If you want to see a better (German) movie on Tourette Syndrome, go for "Vincent will Meer" from 2010. It is superior in basically almost every regard.
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