Clean-up comedy: “Everything is fine” with Corinna Harfouch

Cleanup comedy
“Everything is fine” with Corinna Harfouch

Do I still enjoy this item? Or can he leave? There has been a real buzz around tidying up in recent years. The guru of this trend is the Japanese Marie Kondo, known for books and a Netflix series. But who are these people who can’t throw anything away? There are some questionable reality series about it on television, but now there is also a nice film about it.

Corinna Harfouch plays the dental technician Marlen in “Everything is fine”. A woman who can’t walk past a “to give away” box and doesn’t want to let anyone into her apartment. Her counterpart is the young neighbor Fynn (Daniel Sträßer), a controlled guy who only has five pairs of socks. He moves in with her amidst her grumblings because of water damage and is ultimately supposed to help with the cleaning out. Because the chaos is getting dicey for Marlen.

The third main role has the backdrop by production designer Zazie Knepper: the apartment looks like the contents of an entire small town flea market. Marlen is not an unkempt messie like from a television documentary, more of a loner with a well-lived life. She feels sorry for things; at home they get out of control, as she says. So Marlen picks up a broken bread slicer. Maybe she could give it to a friend. But who needs a broken machine? Does Marlen even have any friends?

And there is another room, as Fynn only discovered after a while. How does Marlen get out of the chaos? Will she and Fynn become a couple? This much can be revealed: the ending is not realistic, but it is visually pretty. And Marlen’s tagine, a cooking pot for Moroccan food, comes in handy.

“Order is half the battle,” says Fynn. “Welcome to the other half!” says Marlen. That is the central exchange in this film, which was shown in cinemas in 2021. Corinna Harfouch (now 69), who has been investigating as a “crime scene” detective in Berlin for some time, shows her skills in the brittle but interesting female character subject. Her counterpart is also aptly cast in Daniel Sträßer (now 36, “Tatort” Saarbrücken). Joachim Król can be seen in a supporting role, as Marlen’s boss.

The warmly staged comedy, shot in Cologne and Oberhausen, is Natja Brunckhorst’s feature film debut as a director. The 57-year-old began her film career as the leading actress in “Christiane F. – We Children from Bahnhof Zoo”, a role that she is still asked about more than 40 years later. The film “Everything in Best Order” is a homage to her mother, Brunckhorst says in the production notes. “She was very humorous, very charming, also a beautiful woman, and she had too many things. I think it would have been good for her if a Fynn like that had come to see her.”

Anyone who can understand Brunckhorst’s thoughts on this will be in good hands with this film. The really dark sides that a hoarder can have are left out. It remains a feel-good comedy.

dpa