Review: Radin ! đź‘Ž
Today’s Sneak Preview movie does not have an English trailer available. There have been a couple of German movies I did like that never went beyond our borders. Radin ! [IMDb, Trailer (German)], however, is French. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with French movies. I just find that apparently I am usually not exactly the target audience.
François Gautier (Dany Boon) is a live action reincarnation of Uncle Scrooge. His entire life he has taken great care to not spend a dime on anything, if there was even the remotest chance to avoid it. As to be expected, this behavior has estranged him to everybody in (or rather not in) his life. As it so happens, one day his daughter (Noémie Schmid) pops up out of nowhere. She newer knew about her father’s despicable habit, because her mother wildly invented a reason for his penny-pinching lifestyle: charity. François’ inability to tell her the truth ends up causing lots of problems and leads to awkward misunderstandings.
The movie goes to any length to really push the idea home how much of a cheapskate the main character really is: At home he never tuns on the lights, but sits close to the window, where the street lamps just barely reach. He does not shrink away from eating shrimp that are way past the expiration date. When they collect money at work to give a present to a retiring colleague, he hides behind the curtains. And it keeps going like that. The level of absurdity is made clear right from the start, so none of these actually are really a surprise. To me, they were just awkward and cringy, rather than funny.
Granted, humor is not a black-and-white thing. And I’m sure there are people who like this kind of pseudo-sad comedy. I don’t. For me, it was one of these movies that you always know might come up in a Sneak Preview, but you keep your fingers crossed that some deity takes pity on you and hits you with a migraine that day, so you’ll miss it. I guess I must have angered someone or something.
So, to at least finish on a high note: A while ago, we saw another movie with Noémie Schmid, The Student and Mister Henri. While surprisingly similar in setting, I actually enjoyed that one. So, if you feel like watching something light on a Sunday afternoon, I would recommend that one instead.
