"Küss die Hand, Krüger" is a German television film from 2018, so not too old, and as you can see from the title, this is another addition to the Krüger frannchise, the third of so far four movies (according to imdb), although there will be more I believe if Horst Krause wants to keep going and stays healthy of course. Which I hope because I like the actor a lot. Like the others, this one here runs for 1.5 hours exactly pretty much and you can see from the title already that this is a mix of Austria and romance basically. The international title "Here Comes the Bride" is even more telling. But not on the fact that this movie is set almost entirely in Vienna. Yep, Krüger got out of his hometown for a while here, although initially he has no intention to do so, but friendship prevails. But I will get back to the plot a little later. Now let me focus on who made this movie. The director is Marc-Andreas Borchert and he was an Oscar nominee in the short film category 20 years ago. Now he is making mostly these Krüger films. Could be better, could be worse. I like them, so I cannot be too harsh here. Borchert is also one of the thre writers and this is an interesting trio, also not just Borchert. His female co-writer was born in Uruguay, but admittedly does not have an inspied body of work. She has worked with the third from the bunch on other occasions too and his body of work is actually more impressive. Some films in there you would not expect from a regular television writer nowadays. So there is promise with the writers here and luckily occasionally it turns into class in this film as well. As for the cast, you get some people here who have of course been in other Krüger films before that, most of all Horst Krause who plays the title character. Yes you can definitely say that he plays the same characters in his films and may not have gigantic range, but he is likable enough with his bourgeois charm and makes more than up for it this way. I mean in another series he even plays a character named Krause on a regular basis. Enough said. He is probably not too different in real life compared to his characters here and authenticity works a lot in his favor. He also has the first two letters of his real name here. Definitely not a coincidence. Okay, enough for the lead. There are no big names in here in the supporting cast. Even German film buffs will have a hard time to recognize faces here, but that's no problem. Each character still adds their own. Floriane Daniel is maybe the one where the chance is the highest you recognize her. So she plays a key supporting character of course. Or Manon Straché. Still all in all, the supporting males are more memorable here to me, like the lovesick buddy. Or the marriage swindler. Or the innkeeper who becomes a friend after initially keeping his distance to the not so likable Germans. So yeah, there is also a bit of tongue-in-cheek comedy here about culture clashing, but then again Germans and Austrians may sometimes be more alike than they would wnat to admit.
So now I am deep in the story already. It must be said that here you should not expect a super authentic realistic film. There are struggles and flaws in terms of how this could happen in real life and that it all feels a bit written and for the sake of it at times. One perfect example for that would be the call, the first call, that tells Krause there is a lot of money to the lovesick woman and the marriage swindler knows. Also how she agrees so quickly to marry him is a bit absurd. Keep looking for these moments and you will not enjoy this film as much as you could. Sadly, they are there. But like I said, the charm and likable characters make more than up for it and make it easy to ignore. Most of all Krause's Krüger. The Peter Alexander running gag is just one of many examples. And I say that as somebody who likes Alexander. Well, at least more than ten years ago or so. But there is also some gravity to this story as we find out when we get to take a deeper look into Krüger's romantic past. The scene with him up there inside the cabin is really sweet, also how he pays for the entire thing, all seats, but it needs to be done to make the moment count and fix the past a bit. Also how we see young Krüger there and his wife next to him. So sweet. This film knows how to get in some decent heart too, which is always a challenge, especially for German small screen releases. So many are getting it completely wrong. Back to the comedy: There I want to mention especially Krüger's friend. It's also easy to feel for him and for how he reacts when he finds out there is another guy in his romantic interest's life. How he says something like "but we went to the opera". Like a struggling puppy. Admittedly, not too attractive, but easy to feel for him too. Or the really hilarious kidnapping sequence. Fictitious of course, but shows that they were also not scared of politically incorrect humor as we see her tied up there the way she would look if she actually got kidnapped. The solution is far more simple though. She just checked out of the hotel with her suitor to go somewhere else. Indirectly linked to that I also want to say that it is good and should not be taken for granted how the nerdy guy and the female do not all of a sudden become a couple in the end for fake happy ending purpose. This would have been very unrealistic, but in other ARD films or Degeto films they easily would have gone that route and sacrificed realism altogether. I am getting closer to the end of my review, but I must say that it was a good watch and I'm eager to check out more Krause/Krüger films in the future and I hope there will be many more. Many little fun moments, also how in-between Krüger has enough of checking out the city after such a short stay there already while others would really get going. He belongs home for sure and he is not one to discover the world. But this made it even sweeter how he still does this move at the Prater (I think) in the end to honor his wife. By the way, I also planned on seeing Vienna this year, but sadly the pandemic got in the way. Gonna do that later for sure, hopefully next year. So this film also inspires you to go see the world a bit. And it is also nice from the romantic perspective, like it motivates you to ask out the one you like. Even if the answer is a resilient "no", it's always better than not having tried. I just wish it could have done a little better during its weakest story moments where it felt rushed to get through the plot. Then I certainly would have given this an even higher rating and declared it one of the best (German) films from 2018. Still with no hesitation and despite the weaker middle part, this movie gets an easy thumbs-up from me. Go see it, although I guess you don't need my recommendation because most likely you have seen other Krüger/Krause films already before this one and know exactly which direction it is heading story-wise and genre-wise and character-wise too. But even if you haven't, then go for it nonetheless because you absolutely do not need to watch these in chronological order to appreciate them. Nicely done and thanks to everybody who was a part of this film.
So now I am deep in the story already. It must be said that here you should not expect a super authentic realistic film. There are struggles and flaws in terms of how this could happen in real life and that it all feels a bit written and for the sake of it at times. One perfect example for that would be the call, the first call, that tells Krause there is a lot of money to the lovesick woman and the marriage swindler knows. Also how she agrees so quickly to marry him is a bit absurd. Keep looking for these moments and you will not enjoy this film as much as you could. Sadly, they are there. But like I said, the charm and likable characters make more than up for it and make it easy to ignore. Most of all Krause's Krüger. The Peter Alexander running gag is just one of many examples. And I say that as somebody who likes Alexander. Well, at least more than ten years ago or so. But there is also some gravity to this story as we find out when we get to take a deeper look into Krüger's romantic past. The scene with him up there inside the cabin is really sweet, also how he pays for the entire thing, all seats, but it needs to be done to make the moment count and fix the past a bit. Also how we see young Krüger there and his wife next to him. So sweet. This film knows how to get in some decent heart too, which is always a challenge, especially for German small screen releases. So many are getting it completely wrong. Back to the comedy: There I want to mention especially Krüger's friend. It's also easy to feel for him and for how he reacts when he finds out there is another guy in his romantic interest's life. How he says something like "but we went to the opera". Like a struggling puppy. Admittedly, not too attractive, but easy to feel for him too. Or the really hilarious kidnapping sequence. Fictitious of course, but shows that they were also not scared of politically incorrect humor as we see her tied up there the way she would look if she actually got kidnapped. The solution is far more simple though. She just checked out of the hotel with her suitor to go somewhere else. Indirectly linked to that I also want to say that it is good and should not be taken for granted how the nerdy guy and the female do not all of a sudden become a couple in the end for fake happy ending purpose. This would have been very unrealistic, but in other ARD films or Degeto films they easily would have gone that route and sacrificed realism altogether. I am getting closer to the end of my review, but I must say that it was a good watch and I'm eager to check out more Krause/Krüger films in the future and I hope there will be many more. Many little fun moments, also how in-between Krüger has enough of checking out the city after such a short stay there already while others would really get going. He belongs home for sure and he is not one to discover the world. But this made it even sweeter how he still does this move at the Prater (I think) in the end to honor his wife. By the way, I also planned on seeing Vienna this year, but sadly the pandemic got in the way. Gonna do that later for sure, hopefully next year. So this film also inspires you to go see the world a bit. And it is also nice from the romantic perspective, like it motivates you to ask out the one you like. Even if the answer is a resilient "no", it's always better than not having tried. I just wish it could have done a little better during its weakest story moments where it felt rushed to get through the plot. Then I certainly would have given this an even higher rating and declared it one of the best (German) films from 2018. Still with no hesitation and despite the weaker middle part, this movie gets an easy thumbs-up from me. Go see it, although I guess you don't need my recommendation because most likely you have seen other Krüger/Krause films already before this one and know exactly which direction it is heading story-wise and genre-wise and character-wise too. But even if you haven't, then go for it nonetheless because you absolutely do not need to watch these in chronological order to appreciate them. Nicely done and thanks to everybody who was a part of this film.
