Film review: 'Der Unfisch'
This fairy tale about an Austrian village that gets everything it wishes for and quickly regrets it makes up in charm what it lacks in production values and stars. With its feel-good ending, it may find some specialty audiences internationally, especially on the college circuit.
"Der Unfisch" (The Unfish) of the title is an almost life-sized plastic carnival whale on the back of a flatbed that gets stranded in a mountain village. The whale's unsuspecting new owner, the young Sophie Moor (Maria Schrader), inadvertently discovers that the whale is magic: whenever she sleeps with a man in its belly, the man's wish comes true.
When the villagers discover this, things start getting out of hand. The first victim of wishes gone wrong is the young bride Maria (Eva Herzig), who is turned into a dog. It takes a lot of coming and going in that whales' belly before someone wishes her back into a bride.
What the film lacks is a main character for the audience to root for. Maria's abandoned, puzzled groom Carl (Andreas Lust) is too bland for an audience to care about, and the film's greatest asset, the sorceress-prostitute Sophie, played charmingly by Schrader, one of Germany's biggest female stars, is neglected. Though she is always sympathetic -- she gets sucked into the magical prostitution business by accident -- as soon as the wish-crazed town becomes the focal point of the action, her character stops developing.
Director Robert Dornhelm's second mistake is to give into the temptation of a voice-over narrator. Though the narration is often witty, it just as often tells us what we already see on the screen and puts us even further out of contact with the characters. Austrians love the turn of a neat phrase, but in this case Dornhelm and screenwriter Michael Koehlmeier should have resisted the temptation and instead invested that Alpine charm into making the characters and their lines more interesting.
Though Dornhelm and his production crew have created an adequate visual world, they never manage to invest the setting with a sense of wonder and magic that the story calls for.
Just the same, the film picks up after a slow start and arrives at a climax that is charming and warmly human, and the movie leaves its audience with a smile.
Add that to a fairy tale with a fairly original premise -- original enough to give an audience something to talk about afterwards -- and you get a good movie-going experience.
If a distributor can just sell the modest production values and the first 30 minutes, the film does the rest.
DER UNFISCH (THE UNFISH)
A Terra Film production
of a Robert Dornhelm film
Director Robert Dornhelm
Writer Michael Koehlmeier
Producer Norbert Blecha
Director of photography Michi Riebl
Editor Klaus Hundsbichler
Music Harald Kloser
Production designers Christof Kanter,
Christian Marin
Costumes Max Wohlkoenig
Special effects Peter Blecha
Color
Cast:
Sophie Moor Maria Schrader
Maria Eva Herzig
Carl Andreas Lust
Dogman George Kern
Mayor August Schmoelzer
Priest Rudolf Wessely
Wenzel Manuel Loeffler
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"Der Unfisch" (The Unfish) of the title is an almost life-sized plastic carnival whale on the back of a flatbed that gets stranded in a mountain village. The whale's unsuspecting new owner, the young Sophie Moor (Maria Schrader), inadvertently discovers that the whale is magic: whenever she sleeps with a man in its belly, the man's wish comes true.
When the villagers discover this, things start getting out of hand. The first victim of wishes gone wrong is the young bride Maria (Eva Herzig), who is turned into a dog. It takes a lot of coming and going in that whales' belly before someone wishes her back into a bride.
What the film lacks is a main character for the audience to root for. Maria's abandoned, puzzled groom Carl (Andreas Lust) is too bland for an audience to care about, and the film's greatest asset, the sorceress-prostitute Sophie, played charmingly by Schrader, one of Germany's biggest female stars, is neglected. Though she is always sympathetic -- she gets sucked into the magical prostitution business by accident -- as soon as the wish-crazed town becomes the focal point of the action, her character stops developing.
Director Robert Dornhelm's second mistake is to give into the temptation of a voice-over narrator. Though the narration is often witty, it just as often tells us what we already see on the screen and puts us even further out of contact with the characters. Austrians love the turn of a neat phrase, but in this case Dornhelm and screenwriter Michael Koehlmeier should have resisted the temptation and instead invested that Alpine charm into making the characters and their lines more interesting.
Though Dornhelm and his production crew have created an adequate visual world, they never manage to invest the setting with a sense of wonder and magic that the story calls for.
Just the same, the film picks up after a slow start and arrives at a climax that is charming and warmly human, and the movie leaves its audience with a smile.
Add that to a fairy tale with a fairly original premise -- original enough to give an audience something to talk about afterwards -- and you get a good movie-going experience.
If a distributor can just sell the modest production values and the first 30 minutes, the film does the rest.
DER UNFISCH (THE UNFISH)
A Terra Film production
of a Robert Dornhelm film
Director Robert Dornhelm
Writer Michael Koehlmeier
Producer Norbert Blecha
Director of photography Michi Riebl
Editor Klaus Hundsbichler
Music Harald Kloser
Production designers Christof Kanter,
Christian Marin
Costumes Max Wohlkoenig
Special effects Peter Blecha
Color
Cast:
Sophie Moor Maria Schrader
Maria Eva Herzig
Carl Andreas Lust
Dogman George Kern
Mayor August Schmoelzer
Priest Rudolf Wessely
Wenzel Manuel Loeffler
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/24/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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