Claysaba
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Agnes and His Brothers" is a German movie from over 10 years ago that runs for almost 2 hours and was written and directed by Oskar Roehler, still among Germany's most respected filmmakers these days. The lead actors in here are Martin Weiß, Moritz Bleibtreu and Herbert Knaup and the title is a reference to Weiß' transsexual character. I guess they really wanted to get this little joke in terms of "her"/"his" in here, even if the story does not warrant it. It's still mildly funny, so the title is not a complete failure. However, I have not measured it, but I am fairly certain that Agnes was the one from the trio that had less screen time than the other 2. And also in terms of memorability, Agnes is not the winner here. It certainly is Bleibtreu. He has been among Germany's most famous actors for a long time already, over 15 years I guess, and I have not always been too happy with his performances. Here, however, he is easily the best thing about this movie. His character was so well-written and he totally nails the part. It is actually pretty sad, but because of how accurate everything seems about him it even put a smile on my lips.Apart from the lead trio, there are also a couple famous supporting actors in here, such as Tom Schilling, Martin Semmelrogge, Til Schweiger in a cameo etc. Katja Riemann won a German Film Award for her turn here, which truly baffles me as I saw nothing outstanding about her character or performance. Also included is Lee Daniels, the director from "precious" and "The Butler" and I really did not expect him in here the first time I saw this. So random. Today was the second time I watched this movie and I enjoyed it again. Real greatness is missing if we look past Bleibtreu's scenes and I did not really like the ending either, but as a whole it was still a good watch. Recommended and I wonder why Weiß stopped being in films a long time ago, while the 2 actors who play his character's brothers are still incredibly relevant today.
Thom-Peters
This movie is rife with weathered stereotypes, spiced with a few somewhat original, but inane ideas that are supposed to "shock" and impress the viewer. It is pure pulp. Not of the good, but of the embarrassing variety, pretending to be art disguised as pulp. It's not a highly "symbolic", merciless comment on the state of today's Germany, it's just nonsense on parade: Agnes was a guy who had his sex changed, because he thought his gay friend would like that. Turned out, he didn't. Too bad for Agnes. Sometimes it's a good idea to surprise your loved ones, sometimes it's really not. Oskar Roehler got this sad story from the arguably trashiest of all Fassbinder movies: "In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden". For Fassbinder it was the basis of one of his awkward melodramas, for Roehler it's just a queer gimmick. Actually, Agnes is by far the happiest and most self-assured of the three brothers in this movie, which therefore concentrates on the other two, Werner and Hans-Jörg.Werner is a "Green Party" politician, working for the German environment ministry. His proudest achievement: He can produce his own biological fertilizer. His wife hates him, because she has to watch him doing so - every single day. During an especially inane "shocking" scene he feels the need to produce something valuable while he's having an intense discussion with the leader of his party on the phone. He pulls down his pants and takes a dump on a single sheet of paper. Later on he picks up this sheet and carries his - obviously highly concentrated - biological fertilizer away.Hans-Jörg works as a librarian, at a really big, modern library, with lots of hot chicks, studying. When he sees a hot woman walking towards the ladies room, he follows her. His 6th sense tells him that there will no one in the first room, with the washing basins, that she will take the booth next to the one he's prepared with a small peeping hole, that she is going to have a tough fight with her constipated bowels, featuring lots of heavy breathing. And he's got another kinky superpower - no one can hear him masturbating.This is an original idea, because quite obviously it would not work in real life - where a sad creep like Hans-Jörg would have used a spy camera. It's the brainchild of a hack writer who is writing by numbers: 1. aiming for an intellectual audience (library), 2. "underground" appeal (seedy sexuality/peeping Tom), 3. symbolic value (fecal matter).Hans-Jörg is a sex addict, which in German movies never means that he's having sex all the time, but that he's always occupied with dysfunctional schemes to get some. He's in a self-help group, where everyone has got quite obviously exactly the same problem. That's where he gets recruited by a porn producer. The first day on his new job he meets his first new colleague and falls in love with her. He confesses that he's just shot his father, whom he blames to have abused "Agnes" as a child, thus turning him into a transsexual. The porn actress agrees to flee with him. They are heading towards Iraq, "to help the people down there".Whoever takes this movie seriously, got a serious problem. Oskar Roehler takes his brainchild very seriously. This is not a comedy, nor a campy trash festival. It's just sad.
br-19
No, I didn't like it. There were some good scenes, but most of the story based on bad taste and unnecessarily spotlighted human squalor. (Just think of the episode with the dog-lover -- was this supposed to be funny?) Some of the actors were great -- Katja Riemann for example, or Moritz Bleibtreu, who was cast way out of character, but rather convincing. Anyway, the story didn't do -- I'm not even sure there was one. Director Roehler seems to be too angry with the world, The Family, and himself to tell a straightforward story or to cast any light of warmth on his characters. I left the theatre quite irritated and disgusted, but nothing to last long -- a day later all is forgotten. (3/10)
corinna-16
I was very touched. This may be because marriage fight is one of the main topics. It was great how characters that have an obvious "flaw" or "tick" fight for their happiness but struggle and fail so much at times. Problem was the actors are so well-known in Germany that I wasn't completely convinced. Like Moritz Bleibtreu is just too warm and kind for a guy like that. Some questions were not answered. Especially about the wife, why didn't she love him anymore, why did she use to love him? Even the filmmaker didn't know what the persons could have changed to make it easier. (Even the filmmaker let one person completely alone in the movie). I wasn't so touched by the Agnes, because I cannot relate to such a CALM person but I liked her and followed with mild(er) interest.I liked it so much because it was REAL problems with an entertaining approach to present them.
