The American reviews to Til Schweiger’s American Remake of his German film hits are devastating. A Selection.
Til Schweiger, actor, film Director, screenwriter and producer, had brought 2014 to a very successful Film in German cinemas: “honey in the head”, a tragi-Comedy about an Alzheimer’s patient with Dieter Hallervorden in the main role. More than seven million viewers saw him in this country. Reason enough to make an English-language Remake for the US cinemas. So it happened. Schweiger was able to oblige with Nick Nolte, Matt Dillon, and Emily Mortimer, well-known sizes of the Hollywood cinema, “Head Full of Honey”. In Germany, the Film only starts in March, Anglo-American critics have seen the Film already. Here are excerpts from their reviews.
Observer: “as funny as a root canal without anesthesia. Til Schweiger says, to be able to with this consuming disease to deal, need it, care, courage, and the love of a family. (But) a two-hour Film about how heart-warming, Alzheimer’s, is more than a misguided film-makers must demand of its most patient viewers. There is no convincing Aresbet Moment in this fiasco. At the end the main character has lost her mind completely. Well possible that the viewers will feel the same way.”
New York Times: “The issue of Alzheimer’s is treated in this disastrous Film will be confused and partly offensive. To all appearances, anyway, if you follow the bizarre plot and the shrill Performances, has been stirred by the movie in a soup mixer. But in the lowest of crimes.”
Los Angeles Times: “A croaking, far-fetched, over-long mess that is loaded by many misguided creative impulses. The Film has the potential to be a warm and tender story. A scalpel would have been necessary. Instead, the blunt end of a sledge hammer was used.”
Common Sense Media: “The Film’s heart is in the right place, but there is so much wrong to him, that he helps at the end is more painful than. The Film makes so many jumps in the service of humor, that he gives the impression to endorse dangerous behaviour and allow for laughs and even dementia cute.”
