comedy
Klamauk with heart: Comedy “Best Witnesses” opens in cinemas
Edin Hasanovic as Jakob and Almila Bagriacik as Marie dance. photo
© -/Paramount Pictures/dpa
A faithful dove, a leg in a cast and a ring stuck on the wrong finger cause all sorts of chaos in wedding planning. Edin Hasanović and Almila Bagriacik have a lot to do as “best men”.
There are plenty of comedies about weddings. Often associated with a lot of chaos, interpersonal Disasters, friction and flying sparks. Nevertheless, Finn Christoph Stroeks and Lena May Graf, as a directing duo, have dared to bring another wedding comedy onto the market: “Best Witnesses” opens in cinemas on September 14th. As the name suggests, they are dedicated to the most important people at a wedding after the bride and groom.
The cynical divorce lawyer Jakob (Edin Hasanović, “Nothing New in the West”), a workaholic and quite egocentric who fights doggedly for his clients, meets the fun-loving couples therapist Marie (Almila Bagriacik, “The Empress”), who always has good advice for others ready and who is quick-witted but practices difficult conversations word for word beforehand. These two, of all people, are supposed to plan a wedding together in record time. Because Tobi (László Branko Breiding) broke his leg a few days before the big day and his fiancée Ruth (Cristina do Rego) is heavily pregnant. So they quickly order the two witnesses to take over the planning of the party.
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Of course, all sorts of absurd situations await the audience, such as when Jakob puts Tobi’s wedding ring on his middle finger, where it then gets stuck. Or when Jakob accidentally releases the faithful wedding dove Agathe and a wild hunt begins in the banquet hall. At the same time, he also has to represent his beastly boss, played brilliantly by Iris Berben, who wants to divorce her wife in court. Then a new location has to be found and Marie often upsets Jakob with her spontaneous and chaotic nature. But somehow they like each other and are getting closer. At the wedding – including ice heart, pyrotechnics and dance battle – a major catastrophe occurs. But then of course – after all it is a romantic comedy – there is a happy ending in the ball pit.
So far, so predictable. Although the material is neither surprising nor a reinvention of the wheel, Lena May Graf and Finn Christoph Stroeks, who already wrote the screenplays for the Schweighöfer films “The Nanny” and “Vielmachglas”, have succeeded in creating a funny, entertaining film with heart. The first few minutes seem quite cliché, but the film picks up quickly and continues to tell the story in an amusing and enjoyable way.
– “Groomsmen”, FSK 6, Paramount, 99 minutes, by Finn Christoph Stroeks and Lena May Graf, with Edin Hasanovic, Almila Bagriacik, Kurt Krömer, Cristina do Rego, László Branko Breiding.
Groomsmen at Paramount