THE WEDDING COW (DIE HOCHZEITSKUH)
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 2000 filmcritic.com
filmcritic.com
Moo, baby.
Not since Top Secret! has a cow been featured so prominently as a plot device in a movie. While The Wedding Cow, a Swiss/German production currently making the festival rounds, bears little resemblance to the Val Kilmer movie (aside from its German setting), it's a funny diversion nonetheless.
Flora (Isabella Parkinson) is a hapless girl headed to southern Germany to start a new job as a librarian. From the get-go, her travels are ill fated, as she finds her money stolen and gets kicked off the train. The equally hapless plumber Tim (Oliver Reinhard) takes pity on the hitchhiker and picks her up. The cow in back, he explains, is a wedding present from his aunt. He's on his way south to get married in just a few days. It's Forces of Nature meets "Hogan's Heroes."
The Wedding Cow quickly develops as your standard road trip comedy. The cow goes missing. The truck breaks down. Another loony hitchhiker is picked up. The truck gets stolen. No one will let them bring the cow into a hotel. The travelers start to hate each other. But perhaps they'll fall in love? The Wedding Cow travels over familiar ground but the ride is truly an enjoyable one.
At less than 90 minutes, Cow is hardly epic filmmaking. German comedy is not something we see a lot of, and director Tomi Streiff has a flair for making a rural journey seem a little bit askew. The problem is that the comedy never goes full-tilt over the edge: the movie is funny but it's never fall-down hilarious. I wanna see some twisted-ass Teutonic humor! With a cow in the show, how could you miss?
RATING: ***
|------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
|------------------------------|
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Tomi Streiff Producer: Susan Schulte Writer: Ela Thier, Tomi Streiff Starring: Isabella Parkinson, Oliver Reinhard, Julia Palmer-Stoll, Roland Kieber, Ursula Staack
No web site. --- Christopher Null - null@filmcritic.com - http://www.filmcritic.com
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