Ernst Held (Gerhard Polt) is a simple fellow: he knows no greater joy than to compose and perform his passionate but not necessarily gifted poetry. Instead he is forced to work as clerk in a rural countryside hotel, owned by his stiff-lipped, upper-class wife (Christiane Hörbiger playing a rural version the character she played in "Shtonk!"). After a platonic affair with the local bimbo, Ernst finds himself cast out, his wife having revoked his financial privileges and wandering penniless in the streets Munich. He manages to con lunch out of gullible American tourists, eventually finding a job as waiter in a small corner-café, owned by the financially struggling Agnes.
In the meantime, Frau Held finds that 1,000 copies of Ernst's first poetic-epos has been delivered to her and that she is being footed with the bill. She goes off to Munich to find Ernst but Ernst, through a lucky twist of fate, has a first success in his poetic career: he manages to make his way into one of Munich's cynical and disillusioned publishing houses who turn this "simpleton-poetry" (intended as a joke for cynical and disillusioned intellectuals) into an instant bestseller. Ernst Held (the German word for 'hero') emerges victorious, his honour redeemed, his credit-card and sports car returned and his nagging wife for once silenced. At the zenith of success, Ernst does what every Bavarian male would do in such situation: he helps himself to a 'Maß' (a litre of beer, served in a bucket-like glass) in a beer-garden end enjoys the sun shining into his face. The End of our hero's odyssey.
Gerhard Polt, in his directorial debut, has always relied on quality over mass. His film and TV-appearances are few and far between but always of the highest standard, humoristic ally brilliant but always with a serious, realistic background. Like his collaborations with Hanns-Christian Müller ("Kehraus", "Man spricht Deutsh"), Polt only relies on reality to provide comedy. Yes, the viewer can laugh at the quirky, lovable characters and situation but the film is never structured like your average comedy. It could also be seen as a social commentary about a city and the mentality of the people that inhabit it; "it just depends from which angle you look at it", as an old Bavarian saying goes.
In all fairness, the directorial skills of Polt are not as fluent and well paced as that of his partner Müller, making the movie a little stiffer than prior mentioned movies, hence never quiet being as brilliant.
People unfamiliar or not interested in Munich and Bavarian culture and mentality in general, might not be able to understand the points this movie is making; it is purely a local affair. But if you're familiar with Polt's straight-faced, critical humour, or if you have an anthropological interest in the southern German mind, you'll find much "insider-information" in "Herr Ober".
