"Grießnockerlaffäre" is a German German-language film from 2017, so this one will have its fifth anniversary next year. Perhaps this is already a thing of the past depending on when you read this review. As you may have guessed, this film is another Eberhoferkrimi, which means a crime comedy movie based on the original works by writer Rita Falk. The two characters you see on the photo here appear in each and every one of these films. The one on the left is the protagonist Eberhofer and the dog on the far left also appears in all of these movies. The director is Ed Herzog here and he has been part of this series really since day one. Very experienced filmmaker anyway as he started shooting movies in the mid-80s already. Writer Stefan Betz is not as experienced, but he also started working on screenplays in the first years of the new millennium. Interestingly enough Betz is only roughly five years younger than his director, who on the other hand is minimally younger than Falk, the original writer. She must be pretty proud to have all these books being turned into movies. As for Betz, he has not been a part of this series from the very start, but also quickly turned into a regular and that is a good thing because the outcome here is certainly entertaining enough. Not just with this movie, but in general I'd say. Anyway, this one here is not among the first or most recent releases and I hope many others will follow and that they keep going with these characters for a long time. I have not read the book(s) this is based on, but no need to really. It's also fun enough if you only knew the movie. Just saying, so don't expect me to elaborate on parallels and differences between book and movies. I think this is actually the film I have seen last from the series, for the first time tonight. If we ignore the upcoming releases that is. I am sure there will be some. I think it is probably not among the best films, but still fairly fine. Interestingly enough, the one I really, really enjoyed is the one I watched at the movie theater, which means these films may be better on the big screen really, which is not particularly a given if we are looking at the genre here.
Another thing all these films have in common is that the film (and book) titles include(s) a certain regional delicacy. You can see it one one occasion as well when we have the main character's father and another character eat the soup that includes these Grießnockerl. I don't know if it's possible to translate those. Probably, but I don't want to right now. They did look delicious though. Lead actor here is as always Sebastian Bezzel. I have seen him in other films and I must say these are certainly my favorites including him, which applies to almost every cast member here I assume. Simon Schwarz is also always a delight here, but really he does not have great material this time and also not too much screen time honestly. A bit of a pity, bit when he is on, he is nice fun to watch. This applies for example to the scene when the two are down in the cellar there and somehow they always end up in a miserable situation together when it comes to facing the bad guy(s). Or bad girls this time. The key ideas here may be nothing new honestly because the idea of a cop getting framed has been dealt with so many times in movies. It is okay here though because they do not take it seriously at all. Look at the way in which the old woman attacks the officers with her broom. It's very light. Or how we find out Bezzel's character does not smell too nicely when out of bed. Speaking of said old woman, they played a bit with us here at the very start. We were supposed to think for a moment that she had died, but then she shows up immediately and it's somebody else. However, characters do die in here. The murder victim is one of them obviously, but also one of the good guys you could say, even if the protagonist's father does not really see him this way. Admittedly, he also does not see him in such a negative light as the protagonist sees the murder victim. I personally think it is a bit of a pity that this film means the end of Fulton-Smith's character. It's nice to see him in stuff like that instead of all the other Degeto trash productions, often cheesy romance nonsense.
So yes, I said "other", which means that this is a Degeto production too and it is a truly, truly rare occasions where Degeto actually came up with something entertaining. All these films, not just this one. So I cannot be too harsh on them for once, but it still doesn't mean they are a respectable company. Not one bit with all the GEZ money they have burned in terrible productions from the creativity perspective. Also Constantin Film were involved with this one again and those I am not fond of either, but for other reasons. No need to go any further into detail. Let's focus on the contents instead. One familiar new face we have here is Nora von Waldstätten. Admittedly, her character was not written too well because honestly the way she keeps treating Bezzel's character as if they had been foes for a long time is pretty ridiculous and even the simples viewer would realize that it's not Eberhofer who killed the man, even if he inevitably makes clear he also doesn't mourn or anything. Plays on words like Barschl/Arschl are not a rarity. You will understand this if you are/speak German. Besides, I felt like they were really making fun of the name also after the murder by constantly mentioning said name and that he was killed. That really reminded me of the Barschel killing, which happened a long time ago when the famous controversial politician committed suicide back in the day. I doubt the names' similarity is a coincidence. What other scenes stayed in the mind? Of course, the brief one with Schwarz' character and the sog and how he, slightly asleep, mistakes the dog's showing of affection for somebody else. As for the key plot, the revelation who did what and why they did it was also nothing entirely new. This has been done many times in movies too that two people are close to each other and agree on killing somebody close to the other, so nobody has a clue who did it and why because they won't make the connection that the two could know each other. Like it is the case here, but also the two women are certainly victims themselves. Who would have thought though this could be true with a deeply religious women and a prostitute that they have a connection.
As for romance, it's not a major story factor in here, but Eberhofer's girl can also be seen here and there. She is jealous for example when Eberhofer talks to the widow and the ending is actually quite a revelation when Eberhofer in his typical manner tries to propose to her. But it goes all kinds of wrong becaue she won't even hear it because one of the kids she is in charge with falls down into a grave. This is the sometimes pretty dark and politically incorrect humor you will find in these movies. There are other examples. I think the story is okay and it was pretty interesting when the stunning Lilith Stangenberg got a little more screen time, but what I like most about these films is definitely the comedy. Take the ways in which they try to emphasize that Eberhofer could never kill somebody and how it backfires. Or take the moment when the butcher's boy makes these funny sounds genuinely thinking it was him who killed Fulton-Smith's character and how he somehow admired him for that. There are so many examples of hilarious comedy in here. I genuinely wonder if they are all in the book like that too. Maybe I should read them one day. They also always go for a little comedy with the closing credits and with that, there is some music involved here. This was maybe to me the funniest moment of the entire film when we hear that one other bearded character sing all of a sudden and we know he just moves his mouth in this romantic duet and we actually hear a woman sing instead. I certainly found this way funnier than I should have. But yeah, if I mentioned every single funny moment this time, I would definitely run into the character limit soon. Which I will anyway, so I can just keep going I guess.
With the last paragraph I guess I will just do some brainstorming now in terms of other scenes and moments that stayed a bit in the mind and were funny enough to remember. One (very brief) inclusion would be when Eberhofer's knife is presented to him as the murder weapon and he says that he already missed it and is ready to take it and there we alsok see that he is completely unaware of the situation that he is a prime suspect. Or when we see a brief video clip from the night of the murder, briefly before it happened, and how he says something there that also backfires. Okay, maybe him threatening with the gun (just a little dispute as he calls it) was a bit too much when they depicted what happened right before the killing. But the opening scene with the paintball gun with the pink color was slightly better there, not just the dialogue writing, but also how he moves before entering the room etc. And in the end, we find out that Barschl was really an evil man, so you won't blame Eberhofer either for despising him and letting him now that he despises him too. The circle closes somehow. Car lovers will also get something to laugh at here when we see the injured butcher boy. Actually also those who do not love cars because I certainly don't and I found it funny. There was also some slightly sad inclusion here, which still had some dark comedy to it when the religious woman is aksed if she has somebody to take care of her after her dad got killed and she takes the direction of Jesus Christ. I could go on and on and on, but enough now because the best choice here is certainly if you go watch this film yourself. Maybe pick another to start the series, perhaps take the chronological order, but do not skip this one here. I give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out.
