Bummm! (2006) Reviews

• OK, but not great

  sheffield2008-03-31

  What was I missing? The plot was quite interesting although I've seen a lot of similar stories. The popular cast did a good job. The soundtrack was OK. But sometimes I felt like I was watching a television movie instead of a cinema movie. Almost all characters are stereotypes: The husband who lost his highly paid job. This causes a personal crisis and he tries to gain back his family but fails. The bored, cold wife who tries to find the meaning of life in art. The two teenage children. One is gay and joined the army. The other is shy and blows things up by self-made bombs. So, what's up? Is the film a statement against neo-liberalism? It's not clear enough. In this regard "Le couperet" by Costa-Gavras is a far better example. I guess it's a film about all these little and big lies which we live with day in, day out and which will destroy us at a certain point. The pull down of the wall is an obvious symbol (a bit too obvious!). If you like to see a masterpiece about lies within a family, you should see "The ice storm" by Ang Lee. Actually, the relation ship between the shy son and the neighbor's daughter is almost a copy of Adam Hann-Byrd's relation ship with Christina Ricci in "The ice storm". But while I was very touched by Ang Lee's film, "Bummm!" never managed to touch me in any way, though it's not an intellectual film in all respects.

  More

• Mostly unsuccessful

  Horst_In_Translation2018-04-02

  "Bummm!" or "Feindliche Übernahme" or "Das wahre Leben" or "Life Actually" (really?) is a German 100-minute movie from 2006, so this one is already over a decade old and here we have the second full feature film by director Alain Gsponer. I personally prefer some of his more recent stuff. Anyway, this one here was written by Buresch und Pacht, who are right now more in the headlines for their work on "Jugend ohne Gott". But this one here from over 10 years ago includes many fairly famous German actors like Noethen, Riemann, Herzsprung, Bruch, Kühler, Feifel and others. For me personally, it may not have had the best approach to begin with as I think Herzsprung and Riemann are among Germany's most overrated actresses in my opinion. In the battle who would be worse here, Herzsprung clearly gets the edge. Riemann was fairly mediocre and forgettable, but she wasn't bad really. Herzsprung, however, had a really baity character at her disposal, but she went way over the top and missed all the right notes. But seems like cutting your hair really short is enough these days for a German Film Award plus a bit of sexual references like seducing a teenage boy. As for the title, the parallels between metaphoric explosions in the characters' lives and actual explosions mostly caused by the son felt a bit shoddy and never as impactful as it could/should have been. The ending is full drama again with tragedy about to happen and while the final shots were good, it did feel a but for the sake of it instead of really authentic story-telling. And this description also fits the film as a whole I'd say. It's not the problem that there aren't really any likable characters in here I guess, but that those who are in it never feel interesting and deep enough from the perspective of telling a memorable yet authentic story and this is clearly what the film tries, but there is just too much ob´ver-the-topness that sacrifice realism most of the time. It's not a failure though I guess, there are some okay moments, but it really isn't enough all in all and that's why I give the movie a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

  More

• Bringing down the house

  richard_sleboe2007-03-10

  Everybody is busy trying to save someone else in Swiss director Alain Gsponer's first general-release feature. Roland tries to save his son Charles from homosexuality. Sybille, Roland's prototypical frustrated gallery-owning wife, tries to save the neighbors' daughter from her loopy parents and turn her into the biggest thing since Rothko. Charles tries to save his introvert kid brother Linus from blowing himself up with home-made explosives. Florina (Hannah Herzsprung, going places) is the only one not trying to save anyone. She is busy hurting herself, charring, boozing, shaving, drugging, cutting, drowning till the morning comes. Oh, and there's a dead kid buried somewhere too. As a running gag, Roland is vainly trying to tear down a wall in their living room. Much like the script, the wall won't give. This one will go straight to film studies discussion group hell, bleak suburban family trauma, the metaphor of spatial transgression, Bergman transferred to post-capitalism, pervasive architectural symbolism, you name it. Extra thumbs down for Katja Riemann's poorly shaved armpits.

  More