I had already suspected that when will it finally go back to the way it never was would hurt. The film told by director Sonja Heiss the breaking up of a family over 18 years, all from the perspective of the youngest son Joachim aka Josse, called “waterhead” by his two older brothers. The Meyerhoffs are a family who love each other in their very own way. Even if father Richard (Devid Striesow) and mother Iris (Laura Tonke) are inexorably moving away from each other.
The divorce seems inevitable – but that is not the last stroke of fate that hits the unusual family. As I said: I had suspected that this would affect me as a child of divorce. However, I would have didn’t think how much the tragic comedy hurts. And that, although at the same time I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much at a German film as I did at the Berlinale screening of When will it finally be like it never was. (By the way in cinemas throughout Germany from February 23 runs.)
The best German comedy in a long time is deeply sad and deadly at the same time
The film has endless potential for comedy: Josse (played by Camille Loup Moltzen, Arsseni Bultmann and Casper von Bülow) has an aggression problem that can only be solved by putting him on a rattling washing machine. Mother Iris dreams back to her vacation in Italy, during which she compulsively paints paintings of Italian landscapes and hangs them up in the house. And father Richard is him bragging head of a psychiatric facility and not only integrates his patients into everyday family life when the Prime Minister is coming by for a PR appointment.
A scene in which Richard Meyerhoff increasingly stubbornly insists that he has to shave at this moment, although – as Josse and his wife attest – there is absolutely no need to do so, could also be made out of Pappa ante Portas by the German humor master Vicco von Bülow. For me there is no greater compliment that can be paid to a German comedy.
Accomplices Film GmbH / Warner Bros. Entertainment GmbH / Frédéric Batier
Laura Tonke in When will it finally be like it never was
The slowly escalating situations don’t feel like something constructed, written down for an obvious gag. I feel like I’m sitting by when the family bridges the car journey with trivia games. Or that Christmas compulsively focused on harmony rapidly goes down the drain after father Richard gives his wife an electronic cutter.
In comedies, bad presents are usually followed directly by a fight, but in When will it finally be like this … mother Iris decides differently – and cheerfully uses the knife on everything that gets in her way. While Richard only slowly realizes that he may have made a mistake. Of course he can’t admit it. If actress Laura Tonke doesn’t get an award for this scene alone, I don’t know what will.
Being able to laugh at family dynamics that are part of the standard repertoire of experiences of an emotionally difficult childhood feels almost therapeutic. It hits all the harder when the film almost brutally changes lane. At one point, Richard Meyerhoff’s emotionally distant, almost entirely self-focused manner is funny. The next, it feels like a heartbreak when he announces the worst possible news for Josse at the breakfast table in the same tone. Quite casually, as if nothing had happened.
Every aspect of the film has its downside. And so the incredibly funny Christmas escalation ends with the brothers, who often argue, withdrawing together into the children’s room and asking themselves, stunned: did that have to be? Can’t we just pretend there’s something alright here for Christmas?
When will it finally be the way it never was is based on a true story and is reminiscent of a Hollywood insider tip
When will it finally be like it never was is based in part on the life of the author Joachim Meyerhoff, who packed his experiences in the novel series of the same name *. No easy fate than overwhelmed child between people with mental health problems and supposedly “healthy” adults who can’t really get their own lives together.
See the trailer for Krass with Gwyneth Paltrow and Brian Cox, among others:
Running with Scissors Trailer for Class
Here the film is reminiscent of Krass from 2006. Ryan Murphy’s wonderfully whimsical adaptation of the novel was also based on a semi-biographical book: Running With Scissors * by Augusten Burroughs. The coming-of-age story delivered similarly absurd scenes as when will it finally be like that again…, but shows a much more disturbing family dynamic.
The tragic comedy has mistakes – and is still an unrestricted cinema tip
Not everything about When will it finally be the way it never was is unreservedly good: Josse’s two brothers remain comparatively pale and their motivation is hardly tangible – which later gets in the way of the film. Also the findings of the patients remain vague. Maybe so that the audience doesn’t think too much about laughing. Perhaps to avoid being criticized for misrepresenting or making fun of very real illnesses.
Accomplices Film GmbH / Warner Bros. Entertainment GmbH / Frédéric Batier
Josse and his girlfriend Marlene
Their function is mostly limited to exposing certain dynamics within the dysfunctional Meyerhoffs. As in one (albeit fantastic) scene where a patient asks, seriously irritated after observing that mother Iris did all the preparations for her husband’s birthday on her own: “Do women always have to work for free?”
In the end, when will it finally be like this again… wants to send the audience home with a good feeling. There should be a little crying at the end, but with a smile. “Typical German comedy”, some might think, “It always has to be cheesy!”.
But the film by Sonja Heiss and co-screenwriter Lars Hubrich is more than a few worn-out set pieces. He is 116 minutes of emotional rollercoaster ride, which you should definitely watch with other people in the cinema. After all, there is no better place to cry and laugh together. But children of divorce should perhaps bring a few more handkerchiefs.
*. . .