Ein starker Abgang

Pretty spaced out for a made-for-TV movie. Bruno Ganz is a grumpy writer touring provincial book stores. Ironically, we see him reading (newspapers, notes, his own work), but never writing. By contrast, his dreamy driver (Harald Schrott) is a closet word-smith and secretly writes poetry whenever he doesn't drive. His romantic disposition makes him an easy target for the flirty tramp (Fritzi Haberlandt) performing a Dixie Chicks number in a small-town Hessian lending library, dolled up in a flimsy floral frock and high-heeled Cowboy boots. Not unlike a female version of Brad Pitt's part in "Thelma and Louise". Better legs though. To top things off, the score is an obvious rip-off of "Dead Man", Neil Young's masterpiece. Director Rainer Kaufmann has good instincts, but in the end, prime time cliché always gets the better of him. Bottom line: well-made, partly original, but ultimately conventional. Essentially unwatchable.