"Harrys Insel" is a German television film from 2017, so this one will have its fifth anniversary one year from now and the title of course means "Harry's Island". It runs for the usual under 1.5 hours and the director is Anna Justice. She is also one of the writers. The others are Scarlett Kleint and Alfred Roesler-Kleint. Spouses? Siblings? Not sure. But Scarlett is almost a decade younger than Alfred, but still the far more prolific from the duo, even if Alfred started his career earlier (according to imdb), bit then also had a pretty big gap after his first project(s) and during that time in the 1990s Scarlett was more prolific for sure. By the way, even if I don't want to talk too much about the cast in the first paragraph, maybe their inclusion here is not a coincidence because they have worked with lead actress Katrin Saß on other occasions too, such as a series that is also linked to an island, even if that one is much closer to us than the one in the film we have here. The one here is in Canada, but this being an ARD Degeto production of course means, it is not a Canadian co-production and the island's beauty was not captured one bit on the screen here. They apparently hired some local actors for filler characters, but nothing memorable to watch here at all. It seemed as if they wanted to get away as fast as they could perhaps with the German cast and crew. By the way, the aforementioned writer and director Anna Justics has worked on some tolerable stuff in her career, some weak stuff. This one here is probably among her more disappointing releases and that is still a gentle way to put things for sure.
This film was on television today on the occasion of the upcoming 75th birthday of actor Wolfgang Stumph. I have no idea why he is only fourth credit here on imdb. He should be second at least. Or maybe first even because he is the Harry mentioned in the title. I kinda like the actor. So he was 70 when he made this film, but I think he looked really good for that, way younger. Maybe even younger than his female co-lead who is ten years younger (and was of course too back then) and she did not even look older than she was. I am talking about the aforementioned Katrin Saß of course. While she will probably always mostly be remembered for her Daniel Brühl movie, Stumph will be remembered for his Trabi films and for Stubbe. But this film here has to be among the weakest for both actors from their highly prolific long careers. I will give examples of disappointing scenes and inclusions later on. To appeal to younger audiences, they got Cosima Henman here, who, at least for her age, is also fairly experienced. And I am sure she also appeals to most heterosexual men watching this because she is a bit of a stunner, felt like a younger Rooney Mara. But her character made almost no sense either. Again, I shall elaborate soon. Same applies to the locals there, the males really. Those were inetrnational actors apparently and they played the part in English and got dubbed later on. And extremely poorly dubbed. It was so over the top that it wasn't even acceptable anymore. Luckily, they/he did not have too many scenes in which talking was involved.
Okay, now to the movie and specific scenes. Honestly, I considered giving two stars more for quite some time, but thinking about the film, I just can't. There is too much wrong with it. Realism and authenticity are again an issue on many occasions as always with Degeto. Also with the small moments. Just take the idea of how we have Saß' picture early on and we find out she has gone missing. Of course, the male protagonist finds her quickly afterwards. And as if this is not enough already, he also randomly keeps running into her family members. Which he does not know initially, but also does not know for example that the young woman is not only related to Saß' character, but actually knows where she is, but hides this information too. Just like Harry did there. And honestly, these references when they talk about her and how she was a desirable hipster that all men loved back in the day, including the one sitting there, is highly cringeworthy honestly. I mean yes this film could have gone worse with a stupid love story and this is why I thought I could be more generous with my rating, but scenes and inclusions like the one(s) I just mentioned make it very easy to hate the film nonetheless. And the route they took in the end by turning this into a sob story about a terminal disease was honestly not good at all either. Felt very much for the sake of it and it was never an emotional watch despite how much they wanted it to be one. Sometimes less is more and this applies here too just like it always does with Degeto. For example, how we see her gone there next to him at the very end should have been left out.
The lengthy beginning after the first five minutes with how they really attack each other in the house could have been so much better too. The actors tried their best, but it just did not work out at all in termms of either drama or comedy, even if they were going for both. The slightly anti-male approach there (also typical with Degeto) was also painful to stomach. Like the lady is really tough and comes really close to shooting the guy with her rifle. And what happens when the man gets the gun? He is standing there and gets knocked out immediately with a pan or something. Unreal stuff. Does this make sense? Keep in mind, Saß' character was also terminally ill already at that point. What happens next is of course what could be easily expected. The two start getting along better and withouth this sob story terminal illness part, maybe they even would have become a couple. You can see them on the poster here too in imdb how they are slowly turning into friends. With this opening scene I already mentioned that was basically 20 minutes of Saß and Stumph only (after the first five minutes of Stumph), I felt here and there that this film could work on the theater stage as well because of the situational comedy and low quantity of actors, but as the film went on, more character entered the stage, even if not many at all either. There you can see again, they basically just went with a tiny German cast at the center of it all and here and there a local with almost no impact. So cheap. And this is what GEZ money is wasted for by ARD and its production company ARD Degeto. Really a scandal with how this is basically going on for 20 years now. But i am drifting away. One thing I can also add is that in the second half Saß' character's importance increased and she felt more of a lead than Stumph. The film's title still feels accurate though.
The worst thing about this movie, however, was really how it took itself so seriously from beginning to end. Not just with the key plots, but also the minor inclusions. There are many examples. One would be the small sob story about Stumph's character and his suffering/deceased wife. This is where I felt especially bad for him. I mean he is not Al Pacino, but with the right material an okay actor I'd say and more talented than many other people you constantly see on ARD Degeto films. Cannot really say the same about Saß. Never saw really much in her. But back to Stumph: Yeah, when he kept rambling about his wife's illness and all the things he did for her, it felt so fake and for the sake of it that it was an absolute travesty and I am pretty sure nobody could have made this work, not even Pacino. The want the utmost emotional reaction from the people watching this film, but they don't have the slightest bit of talent or authenticity to invest here. Disgraceful. It may sound harsh, but it is true. I could mention many, many other examples here with which I was not too impressed gently-speaking. Just take the bear talk. Very funny when the female protagonist pretends there was a bear around. So yeah, this is the kind of comedy once again they were going with here. Men are fools. Same, again with bears, when she acts as if he is a complete idiot because he did not remember immediately that bears are great swimmers. You get the message. More pseudo drama (with equally pseudo dramatic music) includes for example a scene where there is a fire and Saß' character is in imminent danger. Besides, another really bad thing here is that it is basically boring and depressing at the same time, so it will even turn you into a negative mooe with all the whining and talking about death in the second half. It would be perfectly okay if this came with realism, authenticity and depth, but the truth is you never care for the characters. This film deserves only one response. To switch the channel when it is on and the biggest tragedy to this movie is that it will probably still be on national television for at least a decade. Highly not recommended.
This film was on television today on the occasion of the upcoming 75th birthday of actor Wolfgang Stumph. I have no idea why he is only fourth credit here on imdb. He should be second at least. Or maybe first even because he is the Harry mentioned in the title. I kinda like the actor. So he was 70 when he made this film, but I think he looked really good for that, way younger. Maybe even younger than his female co-lead who is ten years younger (and was of course too back then) and she did not even look older than she was. I am talking about the aforementioned Katrin Saß of course. While she will probably always mostly be remembered for her Daniel Brühl movie, Stumph will be remembered for his Trabi films and for Stubbe. But this film here has to be among the weakest for both actors from their highly prolific long careers. I will give examples of disappointing scenes and inclusions later on. To appeal to younger audiences, they got Cosima Henman here, who, at least for her age, is also fairly experienced. And I am sure she also appeals to most heterosexual men watching this because she is a bit of a stunner, felt like a younger Rooney Mara. But her character made almost no sense either. Again, I shall elaborate soon. Same applies to the locals there, the males really. Those were inetrnational actors apparently and they played the part in English and got dubbed later on. And extremely poorly dubbed. It was so over the top that it wasn't even acceptable anymore. Luckily, they/he did not have too many scenes in which talking was involved.
Okay, now to the movie and specific scenes. Honestly, I considered giving two stars more for quite some time, but thinking about the film, I just can't. There is too much wrong with it. Realism and authenticity are again an issue on many occasions as always with Degeto. Also with the small moments. Just take the idea of how we have Saß' picture early on and we find out she has gone missing. Of course, the male protagonist finds her quickly afterwards. And as if this is not enough already, he also randomly keeps running into her family members. Which he does not know initially, but also does not know for example that the young woman is not only related to Saß' character, but actually knows where she is, but hides this information too. Just like Harry did there. And honestly, these references when they talk about her and how she was a desirable hipster that all men loved back in the day, including the one sitting there, is highly cringeworthy honestly. I mean yes this film could have gone worse with a stupid love story and this is why I thought I could be more generous with my rating, but scenes and inclusions like the one(s) I just mentioned make it very easy to hate the film nonetheless. And the route they took in the end by turning this into a sob story about a terminal disease was honestly not good at all either. Felt very much for the sake of it and it was never an emotional watch despite how much they wanted it to be one. Sometimes less is more and this applies here too just like it always does with Degeto. For example, how we see her gone there next to him at the very end should have been left out.
The lengthy beginning after the first five minutes with how they really attack each other in the house could have been so much better too. The actors tried their best, but it just did not work out at all in termms of either drama or comedy, even if they were going for both. The slightly anti-male approach there (also typical with Degeto) was also painful to stomach. Like the lady is really tough and comes really close to shooting the guy with her rifle. And what happens when the man gets the gun? He is standing there and gets knocked out immediately with a pan or something. Unreal stuff. Does this make sense? Keep in mind, Saß' character was also terminally ill already at that point. What happens next is of course what could be easily expected. The two start getting along better and withouth this sob story terminal illness part, maybe they even would have become a couple. You can see them on the poster here too in imdb how they are slowly turning into friends. With this opening scene I already mentioned that was basically 20 minutes of Saß and Stumph only (after the first five minutes of Stumph), I felt here and there that this film could work on the theater stage as well because of the situational comedy and low quantity of actors, but as the film went on, more character entered the stage, even if not many at all either. There you can see again, they basically just went with a tiny German cast at the center of it all and here and there a local with almost no impact. So cheap. And this is what GEZ money is wasted for by ARD and its production company ARD Degeto. Really a scandal with how this is basically going on for 20 years now. But i am drifting away. One thing I can also add is that in the second half Saß' character's importance increased and she felt more of a lead than Stumph. The film's title still feels accurate though.
The worst thing about this movie, however, was really how it took itself so seriously from beginning to end. Not just with the key plots, but also the minor inclusions. There are many examples. One would be the small sob story about Stumph's character and his suffering/deceased wife. This is where I felt especially bad for him. I mean he is not Al Pacino, but with the right material an okay actor I'd say and more talented than many other people you constantly see on ARD Degeto films. Cannot really say the same about Saß. Never saw really much in her. But back to Stumph: Yeah, when he kept rambling about his wife's illness and all the things he did for her, it felt so fake and for the sake of it that it was an absolute travesty and I am pretty sure nobody could have made this work, not even Pacino. The want the utmost emotional reaction from the people watching this film, but they don't have the slightest bit of talent or authenticity to invest here. Disgraceful. It may sound harsh, but it is true. I could mention many, many other examples here with which I was not too impressed gently-speaking. Just take the bear talk. Very funny when the female protagonist pretends there was a bear around. So yeah, this is the kind of comedy once again they were going with here. Men are fools. Same, again with bears, when she acts as if he is a complete idiot because he did not remember immediately that bears are great swimmers. You get the message. More pseudo drama (with equally pseudo dramatic music) includes for example a scene where there is a fire and Saß' character is in imminent danger. Besides, another really bad thing here is that it is basically boring and depressing at the same time, so it will even turn you into a negative mooe with all the whining and talking about death in the second half. It would be perfectly okay if this came with realism, authenticity and depth, but the truth is you never care for the characters. This film deserves only one response. To switch the channel when it is on and the biggest tragedy to this movie is that it will probably still be on national television for at least a decade. Highly not recommended.
