Father Morgana

It took a long time, but now it looks like Lutz (Christian Ulmen) finally has his life under control: professionally things are looking up and Lutz also wants to finally propose to his beloved, the policewoman Annette (Felicitas Woll). Everything is planned down to the last detail - but just before the decisive question, his father Walther (Michael Gwisdek) appears, the man who has disappeared again and again since Lutz's childhood and who has thrown the young man's life off course several times. And even now it only takes moments for Walther to cause total chaos again. The result: Lutz loses his job, is accused of being involved in a robbery and then, chased by the love of his life, finds himself on the run with his father, who always seems to forget what he has actually done here. And soon Lutz realizes that he probably doesn't have much time left to bond with his father...

Everything should be right with "Father Morgana". The film has a good story in itself, which offers the best conditions for a moving drama as well as for a biting comedy. In addition, great actors could be won for leading and supporting roles. And with Till Endemann ("Das Lächeln der Tiefseefische") a promising directorial talent has taken a seat behind the camera. But although everything seems to be right on paper, the film doesn't work at all. And it is precisely because of the good premises that "Father Morgana" is certainly not the worst film of the year, but it has certainly become one of the biggest disappointments of recent months.

The comedic timing is simply not right, the dialogue doesn't spark and the characters also seem neither likeable nor charming. Especially Walther gets on the audience's nerves in some scenes. Normally this is the fault of the actors, but they can't be blamed here. Both Christian Ulmen and Michael Gwisdek deliver exactly the kind of performances that have made them so popular with viewers in other films. But here the spark just doesn't want to jump over.

"Father Morgana" is once again a good example of how the best intentions are sometimes not enough to knit a movie worth seeing out of. An unfortunately failed attempt to mix comedy and drama, so that the viewer always asks himself at the wrong places whether he should laugh or rather cry. Therefore: despite good actors and a nice ideas only conditionally worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp