The road trip movie is a familiar genre: A pair or a group — who hate each other and learn to love one another, or love each other and learn to hate one another — travel through the country, learning about themselves and the world along the way.But how often do you see such a flick where the trippers are an anorexic, an obsessive-compulsive and a man suffering from Tourette’s syndrome? That’s ready-made comedy, but “Vincent Wants to Sea” doesn’t take the easy path to redemption. This German film is quirky, but doesn’t rely just on the foibles of its motley crew to provoke laughs — or tears.
The film opens on a funeral, with a clergyman intoning on the meaning of everlasting life. A man in the front pew looks uncomfortable. Is he about to cry? Throw up? Laugh?
| ON SCREEN |
| ‘Vincent Wants to Sea’ |
| » Rating: 4 out of 5 stars |
| » Starring: Florian David Fitz, Karoline Herfurth and Heino Ferch |
| » Director: Ralf Huettner |
| » Rated: Not rated (but lots of profane language) |
| » Running time: 96 minutes |
No, he’s about to let loose a stream of obscenities. Vincent (Florian David Fitz, who also wrote the screenplay) has Tourette’s, which particularly flares up when he’s under stress. His father (Heino Ferch), an ambitious politician, carts Vincent off to the loony bin, though the son is in his 20s and reluctant to go. He wants to travel to Italy and fulfill his mother’s last wish to be by the sea one more time.
He ends up getting his chance anyway, when the attractive, anorexic Marie (Karoline Herfurth) steals their doctor’s car and offers to drive the new guy anywhere he wants to go. Unfortunately, they’re stuck taking Alexander (Johannes Allmayer) with them. The obsessive — one of whom the word “unfriendly” is an understatement — sees them about to steal the car and insists on going, along with his favorite Bach CD that he replays over and over. They’re followed, eventually, by Vincent’s father and doctor.
Vincent’s mother is at the crux of the plot, and we get to know this mysterious presence through her son. And his father, too. The older man looks at the picture Vincent carries around with him and says, almost incredulously, “She’s laughing.” The son asks when the picture was taken. “Before you were born,” is the indelicate reply.
The very real problems of its characters are never played for vulgar laughs in “Vincent Wants to Sea,” as difficult as that might be to believe, given how the film begins. Its themes, its demons are sensitively handled — but not less funny for it. Munich-born director Ralf Huettner has made a daring film that deserves to be seen far and wide.
