Da Til Schweiger nicht müde wird, sich zu beschweren, dass die deutsche Filmkritik ihm übel mitspielen würde und dass er als Blockbuster-Prophet im eigenen Land aus Neidgründen nichts gelten würde, ist es doch interessant zu verfolgen, wie Til Schweigers eigenes Hollywood-Remake seiner Alzheimer-Comedy “Honig im Kopf” im Ausland aufgenommen wird. Spoileralert: Nicht gut.
Bilge Ebiri in der New York Times:
“The subject of Alzheimer’s gets a tonally disheveled, occasionally offensive treatment in the disastrous “Head Full of Honey,” about a family dealing with (or failing to deal with) the rapidly escalating dementia of the widower Amadeus (Nick Nolte). (…) To go with its bizarre plotting and shrill performances, the film seems to have been edited in a Cuisinart. But those are the least of its crimes. (…) The director, Til Schweiger (remaking his financially successful 2014 German film), and his collaborators clearly understand the devastating toll of this disease, which makes the decision to turn Amadeus’s antics into comic set pieces that much more disheartening.”
…die L.A. Times:
“It’s no wonder Warner Bros. held back the family dramedy “Head Full of Honey” from critics until the last minute. Actor-filmmaker Til Schweiger has remade his 2014 German film “Honig im Kopf” for American audiences and the result is a raucous, wildly implausible, overlong jumble saddled by a host of misguided creative instincts. It’s a potentially warm and delicate story that required a scalpel, but saw the blunt end of a sledgehammer instead. (…) Although this well-intended film, featuring on-the-nose narration by Sophia, certainly aims for heartfelt, it lands somewhere between mawkish and strained, rarely missing an opportunity to make noise, crash things, land a punch, stretch for the uneasy laugh and generally overreact.”
….und Rex Reed im Observer:
“This Nick Nolte Comedy About Alzheimer’s Is as Funny as a Root Canal Without Anesthesia
I’m sure everyone involved nursed good intentions, determined to alert people everywhere to the fact that this horrible, deadly disintegration of the brain and body called Alzheimer’s can also be funny. I’m also sure they’re surprised that the result is such a bomb—exaggerated, infuriating, and about as funny as a root canal without anesthesia. (…) After he wrecks the house, he moves on to the English garden. An Alzheimer’s patient with a chainsaw? I don’t think so. But the height of absurdity arrives when, for reasons totally dubious, the granddaughter decides to take him to Venice to rekindle memories of his wedding night. A ten-year-old child who sneaks out of the house in the middle of the night without telling her parents, headed for Italy on a luxury train accompanied by an old man in an advanced state of senility with no money? If you believe that one, there’s this bridge to Brooklyn I can sell you at a phenomenal discount. (…)
There is nary a convincing moment in this fiasco, and although Eric Roberts, Greta Scacchi, Jake Weber and a game cast stumble through the cinematic sludge bravely, nothing really works. The journey is filled with as many contrived adventures as Schweigel and his screenwriters can conjure to pad out the empty plot. On the express train, Amadeus climbs into bed with a blonde passenger and fondles her breast until she screams “Rape!,” then wanders around a terminal in his pajamas, pursued by a flotilla of cops. (…) Meanwhile, back in London, Nick and Sarah, the now hysterical parents, are advised by Sarah’s mother (played by a criminally wasted Jacqueline Bisset) to treat the whole nightmare with wit and wisdom, although Head Full of Honey has already given up on both.”
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