Mental illness, misery, and mirth

Mental illness as depicted in the German road trip comedy/drama

Vincent Wants to Sea

is somewhere between a terrible affliction and a terribly funny affectation, depending on the manipulative needs of a hackneyed script.

First there's twentysomething Tourette's syndrome sufferer Vincent (Florian David Fitz, also the screenwriter), institutionalized by his insensitive politician dad (Heino Ferch) after his caretaker mother dies.

Escaping the hospital via stolen car on a quest to throw his mother's ashes into the ocean, he's joined by germphobic OCD patient Alex (Johannes Allmeyer) and flirty yet brooding anorexic Marie (Karoline Herfurth). This outcast trio makes for a cloying, unfunny pity party, however, as they zoom through the Italian alps, with Vincent's father and a caring psychologist (Katharina Müller-Elmau) in hot pursuit.

Director Ralf Huettner treats the whole thing like a bar graph of emotional points to hit: laugh at the uncontrollable swearing and cleanliness shtick here, marvel at the mountainous backdrops there, sniffle at the learned lessons in the third act, and keep your toes tapping to the folk-pop soundtrack. What's missing is any of the real-life messiness that might have lifted this material from its creatively tic-ridden confines.

Directed by Ralf Huettner. With Florian David Fitz, Karoline Herfurth, Heino Ferch, and Johannes Allmayer. Distributed by Corinth Films.

Running time: 1 hour, 36 mins.

Parent's guide: No MPAA rating

Playing at: Ritz at the Bourse

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