IN GERMAN WITH ENGLISH AND CHINESE SUBTITLES
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Til Schweiger
Cast: Til Schweiger, Nora Tschirner, Matthias
Schweighöfer, Alwara Höfels, Jürgen Vogel, Armin
Rohde, Barbara Rudnik, Rick Kavanian, Wolfgang Stumph, Christian
Tramitz, Brigitte Zeh
RunTime: 1 hr 55 mins
Released By: Festive Films
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes)
Official Website: http://www.festivefilms.com/rabbit/
Opening Day: 20 November 2008
Synopsis:
When yellow-press reporter Ludo gets into trouble, he gets
sentenced to 300 hours of social work in a nursery run by
Anna, a long-forgotten schoolmate. She has never forgotten
how he used to make fun of her. Now it’s time for her
to turn the tables on Ludo - though it would be easier if
she didn’t fall in love with him...
Movie Review:
In writer-director-star Til Schweiger’s second directorial
outing, “Rabbit Without Ears” (following a semi-refreshing
“Barefoot”), he plays yet another hedonistic Teutonic
cad spun round by an unlikely, socially awkward girl. It’s
an overly familiar romantic comedy that trades on European
sensibilities for a distinctively American atmosphere.
Just
as in “Barefoot” (a love story of a self-involved
cad and a depressively sweet escapee from a psych hospital
with an aversion to footwear), Schweiger uses the same sort
of emotional modulation – with a touch of transparent
manipulation and a fair amount of feel-good montages –
to present its apparent mainstream appeal of the adorable
differences between men and women. You could transplant everything
here from a Frankfurt to New York setting while a Matthew
McConaughey could easily play Schweiger’s dapper hunk
and a Sandra Bullock could slot in as his female co-star Nora
Tschirner – the latter being a dead ringer for the Hollywood
star.
So
what’s a rabbit without ears but just another flaw to
be overcome? Schweiger plays Ludo, a paparazzi reporter who
sees his work and women as one venture. Till, he messes up
and gets 300 hours of community service at a local day-care
facility run by an ex-classmate, the frumpily attractive Anna
(played by Tschirner) who still harbours an improbable resentment
of Ludo and his teasing over 20 years ago.
But
what’s even more dubious is how easily these set-ups
and facades drop to accommodate the inevitability of its central
pairing. Ludo finds his redemption being surrounded by enamoured
toddlers while Anna falls deeply into a void of self-esteem,
which is to say into the arms of the obliviously receptive
Ludo. It could just as readily be named “Men Are Dogs
and the Women Who Love Them”.
Schweiger
lazily allows the strings to be seen. There are scenes so
ludicrously over the top and undeveloped that questions about
the writing and editing have to be raised. Characters cease
to act like they were written and anachronistic scenes mar
emotional pay-offs that could have been promising given the
film’s punchy performances and frequently wry dialogue.
Sex
is fundamental to these upwardly mobile Germans, but the utter
puerility of sex-faces and loud restaurant reveals aside,
the understated view on sexual politics is particularly lurid.
The strongly defined angular features of Schweiger augments
an ability to convey quick nods of sympathetic posturing –
an incredibly useful tool that belies Ludo’s selfish
actions and blurs the perception beyond acceptable behaviour
and the resulting consequences of its main pairing. Schweiger
needs to rediscover the sweet emotionality of his previous
film and disregard the rank superficiality of this film.
Movie Rating:
(Overly slick romantic comedy that uses familiar gender-roles
tropes to an uneven mess)
Review by Justin Deimen
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