An anorexic girl, a young man who is obsessive-compulsive and another who has Tourette's syndrome will never be mistaken for the Three Musketeers, but there are a few times during "Vincent Wants the Sea," when director Ralf Huettner makes a pretty good case for it.
A poor translation of a German pun makes for an awkward title, but awkwardness are us in this German attempt at comedy. "German comedy" is a pretty good example of an oxymoron, like "jumbo shrimp" or "amateur college athlete."
Florian David Fitz, who also wrote the screenplay, is the title character. His father (Heino Ferch) is an arrogant politician, certain that he can fix anything and also control his son. Vincent's mother has died and her son wants to satisfy her last wish, of tossing her ashes into an Italian surf. Vincent has Tourette's Syndrome, which causes him to blurt out obscene words in extremely inappropriate situations. Dad, running for some political office, hides him in a residential care clinic in Munich run by Dr. Rose (Katharina Muller-Elmau), one of the least effective healers to ever take bad situations and turn them into worse ones.
Marie (Karoline Herfurth) is the anorexic, who also has a lecherous eye on Vincent, and Alexander (Johannes Allmeyer) is an obsessive-compulsive who cannot bear to be touched (among other problems) but who has been assigned as Vincent's roommate.
The road movie is fitfully funny, but the characters' problems are turned into cliches and the whole thing is heavier than second-rate spaetzle.
Vincent Wants the Sea opens today at the Plaza Frontenac
–Joe