Once upon a time there was a film that took place almost entirely in an apartment. Over dinner, a family discussed whether people could still name their child Adolf these days. With biting humor and wit, Der Vorname explored the intricacies of German decency. However, the jamming play The Nickname could hardly be further away from this entertaining chamber play.
The nickname forgets the roots of his comedy success
The first name was Sönke Wortmann’s new edition of the French comedy of the same name in 2018, which was again based on a play. According to Blickpunkt:Film, the German remake of an escalating evening grossed over 9 million euros in cinemas in this country. Over a million people saw the name discussion on the big screen. Which gave us a sequel three years later: The Last Name.
The last name was no longer based on a template in 2021 and brought Dorothea’s (Iris Berben) family to Lanzarote. Instead of a living room, there was now an entire island available for arguments. The story began to unravel. At least thematically, the sequel was linked to its predecessor, as this time it was negotiated whether the mother of the family could take on a new family name when she married.
The nickname now wants to go one better three years later – with a “destination wedding”, as they call getting married far away in modern German these days. Thomas (Florian David Fitz) and (Janina Uhse) plan to get married in front of their relatives in the highest chapel in the East Tyrolean Alps.
With so much mania for progression, the title of the latest part of the series is just an accessory that has nothing to do with the plot. On the surface, the nickname is intended to round out a trilogy that, upon closer inspection, is… Lost direction has. The fact that Stephan’s (Christoph Maria Herbst) and Elisabeth’s (Caroline Peters) daughter Antigone (Kya-Celina Barucki) is called “Tiggi” or Thomas calls his daughter “Paulchen” has no influence on the events. And unfortunately that is symbolic of the entire, irrelevant film.
Questions about names are a thing of the past: the nickname instead gets stuck in too many “modern topics”
The summary of previous events that Christoph Maria Herbst gives at the beginning exposes the ridiculous sequel. In part 3 the relationships of the Böttcher/Berger/König/Wittmann family are discussed Peak of absurdity arrived: Mother Dorothea married her adopted son René (Justus von Dohnányi) and they had children from his sister as a surrogate mother. Is this still high-quality comedy or is it already a soap opera?
Taking past complications further seemed impossible. The nickname still tries. Once again, changed first and last names occasionally play a role. Because that’s apparently no longer enough, Sönke Wortmann’s screenwriter Claudius Pläging has decided to add an additional dose of laughter to work on “hot topics”.. And all of them at once.
Whether the pitfalls of gender, sexual identity issues, cancel culture, trigger warnings, first world problems or dick picks: the nickname tries to sum up aimless hodgepodge of modern questions However, coming across as “hip” is just “cringe”. What is probably being addressed here is the audience that already laughed at the pitfalls of the new German language in Old White Man. The humor is already at this level when you arrive at the hotel: “There is a pool inside” – “But you don’t have to gender the pool!”. Pedantic professors who use the N-word and moms who discover the Bitcoin business no longer have much to do with the joke of the first part.
Sönke Wortmann, please let the name trilogy end with part 3
At the Meandering through the pitfalls of a constantly evolving society In The Nickname, it reaches its unpleasant climax in the unraveling of Thomas’ telephone secret – about which it is better not to say another word here, because the film finds itself oh-so-clever in turning an explosive topic on its head. In the gondola halfway to the wedding summit, it is difficult to let this affluent family pass off their mistakes as amiable quirks any longer. Even the constant gag of Stephan’s constant corrections to the German language has now worn off in Part 3.
The discussion chamber game that started it all six years ago has turned into a painfully drawn-out “success story” that… lost her comedic edge along the way has. The first name was of course a kind of negotiation of being “woke”, but it channeled the family dispute into a single clear topic: Yes or no to the child’s name Adolf.
This saving comedy screen is lost to the theme octopus from The Nickname randomly reaches for everything at the same time and achieves nothing. The sequel to a sequel to a remake of a theatrical adaptation lacks both a pointed idea and the focus for its humor. So everything that made part 1 so convincing.
With “The nickname” or “The nickname” Sönke Wortmann would definitely find titles for future sequels. We can only hope that this doesn’t happen and that Trilogy ends here please. Otherwise we might get an even more outrageous themed buffet in the next film, one that’s big and still doesn’t fill you up. It is enough to lock six people in a room and let them discuss a single question over a small dinner.