Vijay and I

It might be terribly naïve, but I did actually expect something from this comedy that is set in New York, but which was mostly developed here. Sam Garbarski’s three earlier feature-length films were all very entertaining. Brussels native Philippe Blasband is our most prolific screenwriter and the cast is pretty good. Patricia Arquette (True Romance, Lost Highway) plays a widow. Fassbinder’s muse Hanna Schygulla has a nice scene. Moritz Bleibtreu, the German actor from Das Experiment and Soul Kitchen who is developing an international career, plays a German actor who has washed up in New York and spends his fortieth birthday miserable. Playing a green rabbit called Bad Luck Bunny on a kids TV show is not what he expected from his career. His daughter couldn’t care less about him. His marriage to a therapist desperately needs some therapy. He is accidentally pronounced dead, and so he takes the opportunity to attend his own funeral. He borrows a fake beard and turban from a friend who disguises the American waiters in his restaurant as Indians (not very subtle), and pretends to be a Sikh banker called Vijay Singh.

The big twist? His wife falls for the stranger. When the tempo is high, the jokes are good, the situations are comic or tragi-comic, and the twists are exciting, this type of crazy concept that looks like it was inspired by bad TV comedy can work. But that is not the case here. It’s no new Some Like it Hot, or even Rabbi Jacob or Mrs. Doubtfire.

Vijay and I ●
BE, 2013, dir.: Sam Garbarski, act.: Moritz Bleibtreu, Patricia Arquette, Hanna Schygulla, 95 min.