His eagerness to “experience” this time in his life is touched on, is mentioned but not followed through on. Jacob’s ingrained sexism - “But cooking is for WOMENfolk!” - and delicacy about matters young people talk about frankly is brought up, and the jokes just don’t land. The elements to a broad farce, something like the Amish portion of the teen comedy “Sex Drive,” are introduced and allowed to wither and die. “Those guys live REALLY sustainably!” So Alf is shamed into helping Jacob track down his luggage, house him and guide him into decadent, partying Berlin. But he won’t allow photos - “It’s vanity!” And he mistakes a straw-hatted chin-bearded hipster as a fellow buggy-rider, a savior who can solve his predicament.Īlf ( Timur Bartels) wants little to do with this “stalker.” But his “save the planet” sometime girlfriend ( Tijan Marei) is ALL about the Amish. In his straw hat and homemade clothes, he may be “Vintage! Retro! Old school!” to the gay trend setters. “My people believe that money has no value!” He dashes off in pursuit of that stuff and misses the uncle, there to pick him up.Ī taxi ride into town ends with an honest confession - “I’m Amish,” he says (in German, or dubbed into English). No cash, no clothes save for the ones on his back, no family Bible. Jacob ( Jonas Holdenrieder) is packed off “to the Old Country” to find himself, and with the help of the genealogically-thorough family Bible, meet lost lost kin - a Mennonite uncle, for starters.īut being polite to this gorgeous Berliner ( Gizem Emre) in the taxi line leads to losing his “sack,” his luggage. In losing its nerve, it’s neither fish nor fowl, dramedy nor comedy, an is doomed to wander across your Netflix screen like a pilgrim in the comic/cosmic wilderness, a picture with a purpose, but no rewarding way of fulfilling it. But it’s too respectful and tentative to go all-in on mockery.
This German film anchored among the Pennsylvania Amish but mostly-set in Berlin begins as a “fish out of water” comedy, lightly mocking the quaint Amish reactions to air travel, convertible cars and raves. “Rumspringa” follows this lad on that teenage walkabout amongst the sinful temptations of the modern world, and has just as much trouble figuring out who and what it is as he does. Today’s “Around the World with Netflix” film is a lot like its lead character, a young Amish man in search of his identity, his place in the world.