Father's Delight

On the surface, Felix (Matthias Schweighöfer) enjoys his life as a single man. No responsibilities, no commitments, and sex whenever and with whomever he wants. Kids? Family? No thanks! But Felix only realizes that this is exactly what he secretly wants when his brother Henne's (Friedrich Mücke) ferret bites into his crown jewels, making it impossible for him to father any offspring from then on. Luckily, he has just earned a few extra euros as a sperm donor. It's just too bad that his genetic material, which has now become extremely precious to him, has already been given away. To apologize for his snarky ferret, Hen steals the files without further ado, which quickly leads Felix to find out who is pregnant with his offspring. Sportscaster Maren (Isabell Polak) turns out to be the mother of his only child. A pretty, likeable and successful woman - what more could you want? But unfortunately Maren is already engaged to the snobby Ralph (Tom Beck). But Felix doesn't want to let this little triviality take away his only chance to have a family of his own. And so he does everything in his power to get to know Maren and conquer her heart - where chaos is of course already pre-programmed.

Following the success of What a Man and Schlussmacher, Matthias Schweighöfer now delivers his third directorial effort with Vaterfreuden. And it leaves a somewhat ambivalent impression. On the one hand, it's clear that Schweighöfer knows what his fans love and that he delivers it to them with his usual good-humoured charm. On the other hand, however, it's a pity that he's too much of an actor and doesn't show the versatility with which he could convince in the past. Whether it's a memorable Tatort appearance, his embodiment of the young Marcel Reich-Ranicki or roles in films like Kammerflimmern and Der Architekt, with all of these works Matthias Schweighöfer has proven that he is just capable of a lot more than just being the somewhat over-the-top, lovable child-head that he has been subscribed to in his past films.

There's no question that viewers who enjoyed films like Schlussmacher or even Kokowääh 2 will also love Vaterfreuden. But it can't be denied that all these films from the house of Schweighöfer or Schweiger so slowly reveal a certain interchangeability. Look, music and gags - all this has again a high recognition value in this comedy. This is in many moments, at least if you liked the very similar films, not further disturbing. But there are also aspects where a little more courage to be new would have done the work good. For example, it is unfortunately a bit tiring in the long run when the humorous effect of the word fucking is used over and over again. And it is also not necessarily understandable why Felix just the time he spends with his oh-so-funny cheeky niece, who is yet very reminiscent of Magdalena from the Kokowääh films, the desire for their own family is strengthened.

But it should not be the impression here, as if Father's Delight is just an uninspired comedy that relies on cheap sex jokes, precocious children and the charm of the main character. The chemistry between the two Friendship co-stars Matthias Schweighöfer and Friedrich Mücke, for example, works quite well, with Mücke in particular winning over the audience's sympathies quite quickly as the pissed-off brother. And even if the sounds that Karsten the ferret makes sound like Mogwai Gizmo from Gremlins has strayed into the film, the furry supporting actor certainly has a certain fun factor. And then there's Isabell Polak, who delivers a very convincing and endearing performance as the pregnant lady of hearts.

Whether it's via Facebook, at cinema tours or special fan events, Matthias Schweighöfer really strives to be as close as possible to his target audience. So he also gets directly what his fans love about him - and that he wants to give them exactly that again and again, you really can't blame him. Nevertheless, at the end of Vaterfreuden the feeling remains that Schweighöfer sells himself short in the long run and that he is capable of much more than playing too similar characters in too interchangeable stories over and over again. That is still quite amusing and entertaining. But slowly the first signs of fatigue become noticeable, which he should definitely counter with some variety in his next projects. Nevertheless, the bottom line is: for fans of the first two directorial works of Matthias Schweighöfer, Vaterfreuden is again absolutely worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp