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| Reviews CHRISTOPHER NULL Filmcritic.com Wise marketer might try to tempt you with The Trio by saying it's about an oddball German family making a living as a band of pickpockets. A less wise marketer might try to tempt you with the film by putting a picture of a guy in his underwear on the box cover. The Trio, of course, is both of these films -- on one hand it's a curiosity about how thieves might work a train station. On the other, it's a not terribly compelling tale about a grubby guy that looks like Maximilian Schell in eye-liner, his daughter, and the handsome boy they both have the hots for. Will the girl discover dad hiding in the guy's shower? The Trio wants to be La Cage Aux Folles but aside from the premise, it's not terribly subversive. PETER STACK San Francisco Chronicle Friday, August 6, 1999 Part caper movie, part family portrait and part teasing sex comedy, new German film ``The Trio'' packs a lot of character and wily entertainment into a story about small-time pickpockets living a desperate, nomadic lifestyle. ``The Trio,'' opening today, is delicious nonformula fare. It blurs gender lines with loving humor, and even with English subtitles the comedy is intelligent, wry and spicy. Zobel (Gotz George) and Karl (Christian Redl) are a gay couple who live in a motor home with Zobel's tough but svelte adult daughter, Lizzie (Jeanette Hain). The three have long worked train stations and carnivals as pickpockets -- skilled professionals at the game who each play a particular role in distracting their marks. The trio is reduced to an awkward, bereft twosome when Karl is hit by a car. To keep their capers going, Zobel and Lizzie seek a new partner in crime. They turn to a young man neither knows much about, Rudolph (Felix Eitner), a budding pickpocket and, apparently, chronic liar to boot. Trouble is, Rudolph is extremely attractive to both Zobel and Lizzie. All kinds of amusing yet affecting complications arise on the road in the close confines of their funky old motor home. Director Hermine Huntgeburth has made a movie ripe with sexually frothy situational comedy. But she is equally interested in the characters' substance and vulnerability. That raises the movie out of the caper genre, although the hit-and-scurry crime element energizes much of the story. Smart acting is a big payoff. The father, a cold taskmaster who occa sionally displays heartbreaking emotional tenderness, is touchingly played by George. One minute a criminal pretending he's a blind man, the next a self-doubting wreck, he's foremost an opportunist with theatrical flourish. In Rudolph, the family team gains an opportunist equal in cunning. But Lizzie becomes the odd person out in a maddening ritual of romance in which she fails to no tice, in her passion for Rudolph, that the old man has a crush on him too. ``The Trio'' glows with a soft, ironic grin as it puts a romantic spin on the criminal lifestyle, turning lowlifes into characters of memorable warmth. .. |
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| THE TRIO 1998 - Germany - 98 min. - Feature - Color AKA - Das Trio (Original Foreign Title) Director - Hermine Huntgeburth |
| Genre / Type - Comedy Drama, Family Drama, Road Movie, Gay & Lesbian Films Crime, Comedy Flags - Adult Situations, Violence Themes - Single Parents, Fathers and Daughters, Love Triangles, Sexual Awakening, Death of a Spouse Tones - Talky, Wry, Quirky, Sexual Sound by - Dolby Produced by - ARTE / Next Films / Norddeutscher Rundfunk / �sterreichischer Rundfunk Released by - Warner Brothers DVD Street Date - May 29, 2001 Languages - German Subtitles - English Screen Format - Widescreen Sound - PCM Stereo Studio - TLA Releasing Features - None specified Cast G�tz George -- Zobel Christian Redl -- Karl Jeanette Hain -- Lizzi Felix Eitner -- Rudolf Angelika Bartsch - Dorothee Plot Synopsis Hermine Huntgeburth wrote and directed this German comedy-drama about a trio of travelers who veer their caravan toward pockets they can pick. Before Zobel (Gotz George) linked up with Karl (Christan Redl), he had a hetero lifestyle that brought him a daughter, Lizzi (Jeanette Hain). After Karl dies in a car accident, Rudolf (Felix Eitner) joins the team - and both father and daughter take a sexual interest in Rudolf. Lizzi leaves, accusing Dad of using her to procure younger men. - Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide |
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