It's an old European movie tradition: a couple go on a vacation in order to watch their relationship fall to pieces.
Maren Ade's moody character study evokes such classics as Voyage to Italy, Knife in theWater, and L'Avventura in its romantic ennui as drippy Chris (Lars Eidinger) and his kooky girlfriend, Gitti (Birgit Minichmayr), take a break at his parents' Sardinian villa and learn they might not like each other. The reason: they're not very likable, especially Chris, an architect whose "ideals" are a cover for spinelessness.
Gitti, a PR person (though nobody bothers to ask), wants to love Chris and tries to shape her impulsiveness into respectability. But she's too much and he's too little, an incompatibility made worse when Chris's boorish buddy Hans (Hans-Jochen Wagner) and Hans's obsequious wife, Sana (Nicole Marischka), pay a visit. Ade has a knack for making subtle insights through details and décor, but that's a mixed blessing when Chris's mother's Hummel collection proves more sympathetic than her son.
