Any filmmaker as smart and prolific as Jan Hrebejk (Up and Down, Kawasaki’s Rose) is entitled to his off days, but this overwrought ensemble drama (2013) is really quite bad. The problem isn’t the stale, theatrical premise—a mysterious stranger shows up at a high society wedding claiming to know dark secrets about the groom—so much as the failure of Hrebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky to do anything interesting with it. The dramatic revelations are all telegraphed far in advance and then driven home with a cudgel when they arrive, Hrebejk’s usual gentle wit and nuanced characterization replaced here by stern moralizing. Even the ensemble acting—a bright spot in Hrebejk’s lesser films—is graceless and unconvincing. In Czech with subtitles.
Honeymoon
1 hour 37 min • 2013