½
Germany 2012
Starts March 7
Directed by: Jan Georg Schütte
Writing credits: Jan Georg Schütte
Cast: Hans-Michael Rehberg ,Oliver Sauer, Stephan Schad, Susanne Wolff, Pheline Roggan, Anne Weber
Length: 106 minutes
August Manzl (Rehberg), obnoxious patriarch of a dysfunctional family, has not much time left to live and wants to be put out of his misery. He orders his children Karl (Sauer), Hugo (Schad) and Sylvia (Wolff) – all of whom he detests - back home, and offers each of them ‘a shot’ at killing him. The prize: the entire estate. The catch: the killing has to be documented and accomplished within one week; otherwise none of them inherits anything. The difficulty: fierce competition, and a suspicious victim. The old man’s thinking: they are too stupid and cowardly to do it anyway. Too stupid? We’ll see. But they do get over any scruples pretty quickly and the sons can count on dedicated accomplices.
The old man watches the activities somewhat amused, but then starts getting nervous after all. Threatening to jeopardize the plans are his ever present secretary (Weber) and his favorite daughter Elisabeth (Roggan), who arrives uninvited. A well-chosen cast and (too) many amusing ideas: the film would have greatly benefited if director / writer Jan Georg Schütte would have parted with some scenes and ideas. ()