As a native speaker, I read the book several times, found it splendid, so I HAD to see that movie. Weired enough that film contains everything a great movie should have: great soundtrack, good camera, nice sets, wonderful surrealistic takes of the empty landscapes and the highway. I mean, road movie, what can go wrong? Anyway I realized that I was bored already after the first minutes. It's simply bad acting and bad timing. The main actors Göbel (Maik) and Batbileg (Tschick) seem to be selected only by appearance, their dialogues stuck and stumble, no timing at all, face expressions stay the same all the time, what could be funny stays dead, learned by heart directly from the text book and that's it.
Every scene is translated directly from the book, there are only minor changes (which not all of them I understand, so why is Maik sketching Tatjana, and not Beyoncé; why is the original joke with the maths test messed up etc.). Anyway, every scene ends up in a kind of faithfully following the book. You sit there and tick off unconsciously "well, now this episode is done, okay, now follows this one, good, next comes that...." - But you never submerge in that movie; the original feeling of ultimate freedom, fun and surrealistic humor is totally absent! I really don't understand why the movie gets good ratings everywhere. It's no bad substance, but it totally misses the goal.
Every scene is translated directly from the book, there are only minor changes (which not all of them I understand, so why is Maik sketching Tatjana, and not Beyoncé; why is the original joke with the maths test messed up etc.). Anyway, every scene ends up in a kind of faithfully following the book. You sit there and tick off unconsciously "well, now this episode is done, okay, now follows this one, good, next comes that...." - But you never submerge in that movie; the original feeling of ultimate freedom, fun and surrealistic humor is totally absent! I really don't understand why the movie gets good ratings everywhere. It's no bad substance, but it totally misses the goal.