3faltig (2010) Reviews

• God wouldn't be amused

  Horst_In_Translation2017-06-27

  "3faltig" or "Dreifaltig" is a German/Austrian co-production from 2010 and this is one of the more recent, but not most recent film efforts by Harald Sicheritz, an Austrian filmmaker born in Sweden who has been among the most prolific and successful of his country for several decades now. He is the director here as well as one of the several writers. Another would be Christian Tramitz, who is a co-lead in this film and still known to many today for his collaborations with Michael Herbig. Tramitz' co-lead is German poster boy (if you can still call him at that age) Matthias Schweighöfer, perhaps Germany's most overrated actor of them all as he basically single-handedly destroyed the German comedy genre for over a decade now. He is the one that makes Ulmen and Schweiger still look talented. Anyway, back to this award-nominated work we have here. You could call it a divine comedy as references about God and Jesus are dominant in here from start to finish. But it's really all for the laughs and the way one character tries to keep another one happy by introducing him to strip shows for example says all about the film's approach. It is not trying to make a dramatic statement. The cast includes several big names from Austria thanks to Sicheritz, such as his longtime collaborator Roland Düringer, but also the likes of Alfred Dorfer and Adele Neuhauser for example. But it also includes Michael Schweighöfer for example and it always says a lot about a film when a lead character gets his family mates in as Matthias did in many other films too, for example with his mother Gitta. Anyway, all in all I think that Sicheritzh proves with this work that he still has it. There are some genuinely funny moments in here and even if you could argue if it is enough for a 1.5-hour film, these moments somehow make it work at times and justify this film being made. Sadly, the casting has the one big flaw I already mentioned early on and there are more than one example when Schweighöfer really shows once again he is not lead actor material and while other actors like Tramitz elevate the material at times because they have genuine comedic talent, Schweighöfer does the opposite. One example: the line about having a déjà-vu relatively late in the film. For me, this casting was a negative deal-breaker, which is why I don't recommend it overall. Quite a shame as there was the potential for much more.