Fabian Stumm’s SAD JOKES never clicked with me. The story of a filmmaker, played by Stumm, trying to deal with his career, single fatherhood (his son’s mom is in a hospital for depression) and romance always kept me at arms length.
The problem is that Stumm isn’t that an engaging actor. He is a good looking guy who never really seems to have anything going on beyond looking good. His expression rarely changes. This is problem when the first person we see is Sonya played by Haley Louise Jones whose whole being is on display in everything she says and does. You can feel the waves of emotion washing over her and into the audience, you don’t get that from Stumm. You want to follow Jones or any other character other than the one played by the writer director.
It might have worked for me if Stumm had shot the film differently. Shot in longer takes with few close ups the film trades the intimacy of close ups and varied shots for sequences playing out in real time. If you have actors to pull it off it can result in emotional moments, but Stumm never manages to pull it off.
I never really cared.
A miss.
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