Father's Days - Grandpa Overnight - DVD

Film: 36-year-old Basti (Sebastian Bezzel) leads a relaxed life in Munich as a rickshaw driver and convinced single. Responsibility is a foreign word for him. Rather, he wants to enjoy life to the fullest: make music with his band, the Wadlbeißern, seduce attractive tourists or relax and enjoy a nice Weißwurst. But the nice life of the lottery is over in one fell swoop when 17-year-old Dina (Sarah Horváth) shows up at his door and reveals to the bewildered Basti not only that she is his daughter, but that she already has a child of her own. The newly minted grandpa is now finally supposed to fulfill his fatherly duties and pay her the child support she is entitled to after seventeen years; on the other hand, Dina's mother, with whom Basti had a one-night stand eighteen years ago, would not shy away from a child support lawsuit. But the 15,000 euros that the girl is demanding is, of course, not something the bon vivant can come up with so easily. And while he tries to scrape together the money from his sister Thea (Monika Gruber) and his father Lambert (Heiner Lauterbach), a tentative friendship develops between Dina and him, but one big lie still stands in the way.

Father Days - Grandpa Overnight doesn't really ignite at first. The beginning of the comedy is very bumpy and very clichéd staged. The very forced Ossi dialect of Dina's friend Natalie quickly gets on your nerves and really doesn't bode well for the rest of the film. But it's worth staying on the ball. Because once director Ingo Rasper has found his pace and freed his characters from the initial clichés, the film can unfold a lot of wit and charm, which leaves a rather positive overall picture in the end.

Sebastian Bezzel is perfectly cast as a somewhat chaotic bon vivant who just won't grow up and has to face an extreme responsibility all at once. Somehow, Bezzel's charming performance makes it hard to resent Basti's all-too-obvious weaknesses and flaws. And even the many rather shallow gags or arguably stale clichés that this character is confronted with, Bezzel masters with bravura. And also the other actors make sure that the good mood they obviously had while playing is also transferred to the audience. And when hip-hop blast music by Moop Mama is heard, you can't help but be released from the film with a big grin on your face.

Sure enough, Father's Days - Grandpa Overnight has its flaws. Time and again, you just roll your eyes in annoyance in the face of the really flat gags. But then there are always moments when either the imagery, the gags or the heartfeltness hit the mark. And in those moments, it just doesn't matter how shallow the comedy, how stale the clichés, or how predictable the story is. Because then the whole thing is just fun and in a good mood. And that's exactly what movies are supposed to be for. So if you don't expect much, like German comedy with a slightly Bavarian touch and don't insist on profound humor, you can be really entertained by this movie. And in this case then also applies: worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The DVD leaves a pretty good impression in technical terms. While the overall sharpness could have definitely been better in some moments, the minor flaws that can be detected here are made up for by the engaging color scheme. The audio, which is available in stereo, but also in a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix, primarily renders the action in a fairly centrally mixed fashion. Every now and then, however, the film's score and minor sound effects make decent use of the surround channels. Good.

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has, in addition to the trailer for the film, four extensive promo interviews with Sebastian Bezzel (approx. 8 min.), Heiner Lauterbach (about 4 min.), director Ingo Rasper (about 13 min.) and producer Jakob Clausen (about 8 min.), as well as an uncommented look behind the scenes (about 13 min.) to offer.

Conclusion: Father Days - Grandpa Overnight turns out to be a very charming and funny comedy after a somewhat bumpy start, which can score especially with its charmingly drawn characters, the appealing visual realization and some really successful gags. If you liked more recent German comedies like Schlussmacher or Mann tut was Mann kann, you will definitely be well entertained by Vatertage - Opa über Nacht. Recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp