Let me start this review to explain the film's title (, which I like a lot,) to non-German speakers. "Hin und weg" is a bit of a word game here. It metaphorically means to be bowled over by something, but the literal translation is "there and gone". If you see the film, you may understand at least the latter.
The movie is written and directed by Christian Zübert. If you are interested in German cinema you may have seen his last work "Dreiviertelmond" or his most popular movie so far, "Lammbock", a stoner comedy from 13 years ago. The lead actor in his newest film is Florian David Fitz, one of Germany's rising stars in the last couple years. He won big at the German Film awards for his work in "Vincent will Meer". Here, he plays again a man with an illness. But, unlike what the trailer suggested, the movie, except the ending, turns out to be much more about his friends, their trip together and why everybody is the way they are. This is probably the way Fitz' character would have wanted the film to be like. Here and there I found a weakness in the writing, but all in all, it is a decent screenplay and the performances are all solid as well. The only thing that left me fairly detached was the central character's relationship with his brother. I am not entirely certain if the problem here was the acting or that it just was not explored enough.
Victoria Mayer's character was a bit strange to me. Her actions seemed really contradictory throughout the film. The weed scene and the cheating scene just did not fit her character at all. None of her other actions implied to me that she would be the kind of character who would just simply sleep with another man only because her husband did so. Maybe that was just me though. I really had some struggles with how the character was written.
Finally, lets take a look at the ending ("Hannes was here"). I thought it was nicely done, but I would also have liked the film to end the moment the toxin was injected or, even better, during the night dance sequence. The addition of the final scene, one year later, however, showed again that this film really was just not only about Fitz' character, but also about everybody else. The accident of the doctor left me a bit surprised, possibly to add some more tension and make the audience ask themselves if he will still pull through, but I could have done without it. The music was chosen nicely throughout the film. I liked that they did not really go for a feel-good ending. Or maybe you could say, they actually did. It's ambiguous somehow. In any case, I don't like movies that do a 180°-turn in the last 20 minutes to have the audience leave the theatre with a smile and sacrifice everything else before the last act and all credibility for such an ending. This movie certainly did not do that.
I very much recommend watching it. You should not expect outstanding filmmaking here or anything that comes close to a "perfect film". It has its flaws, but what it delivers most and what makes it worth watching the most is its emotional impact. And most importantly, don't see it as a benchmark statement for assisted suicide. That is really not what it is.
The movie is written and directed by Christian Zübert. If you are interested in German cinema you may have seen his last work "Dreiviertelmond" or his most popular movie so far, "Lammbock", a stoner comedy from 13 years ago. The lead actor in his newest film is Florian David Fitz, one of Germany's rising stars in the last couple years. He won big at the German Film awards for his work in "Vincent will Meer". Here, he plays again a man with an illness. But, unlike what the trailer suggested, the movie, except the ending, turns out to be much more about his friends, their trip together and why everybody is the way they are. This is probably the way Fitz' character would have wanted the film to be like. Here and there I found a weakness in the writing, but all in all, it is a decent screenplay and the performances are all solid as well. The only thing that left me fairly detached was the central character's relationship with his brother. I am not entirely certain if the problem here was the acting or that it just was not explored enough.
Victoria Mayer's character was a bit strange to me. Her actions seemed really contradictory throughout the film. The weed scene and the cheating scene just did not fit her character at all. None of her other actions implied to me that she would be the kind of character who would just simply sleep with another man only because her husband did so. Maybe that was just me though. I really had some struggles with how the character was written.
Finally, lets take a look at the ending ("Hannes was here"). I thought it was nicely done, but I would also have liked the film to end the moment the toxin was injected or, even better, during the night dance sequence. The addition of the final scene, one year later, however, showed again that this film really was just not only about Fitz' character, but also about everybody else. The accident of the doctor left me a bit surprised, possibly to add some more tension and make the audience ask themselves if he will still pull through, but I could have done without it. The music was chosen nicely throughout the film. I liked that they did not really go for a feel-good ending. Or maybe you could say, they actually did. It's ambiguous somehow. In any case, I don't like movies that do a 180°-turn in the last 20 minutes to have the audience leave the theatre with a smile and sacrifice everything else before the last act and all credibility for such an ending. This movie certainly did not do that.
I very much recommend watching it. You should not expect outstanding filmmaking here or anything that comes close to a "perfect film". It has its flaws, but what it delivers most and what makes it worth watching the most is its emotional impact. And most importantly, don't see it as a benchmark statement for assisted suicide. That is really not what it is.
