| Fabian (Bastian Pastewka) is a con man, a bad but lucky con man. His scheme to open the movie is posing as a rich lawyer’s masseuse, to then drug and lock him in his sauna room, and then becomes the benefactor of a 10% deposit and signed real estate deal, only for the rich lawyer to wake up, and Fabian has to run out of there. He loses the stolen money but makes it onto a getaway bus, and onto his next scheme. | | 2026
Directed by: Markus Sehr
Screenplay by: Martin Eigler and Sönke Lars Neuwöhner & Sven Poser
Starring: Bastian Pastewka
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The bus is for a wedding party, all travelling to a fancy, remote estate. Fabian is posing as the wedding photographer and is about to be stuck at the estate all weekend since there is a snow storm and all roads have been shut down. This is a common set-up for a murder mystery – a finite number of guests all trapped at an estate with no way in or out. But what better way to broaden that set-up than with a wedding and another con.
The bride’s aunt is the rich host for the wedding and is also the owner of a mystical piece of art, a very valuable piece of art: the Venus of Wildenfeld. Our con man now has one task to pull during the wedding weekend: steal this statue worth six million euros. Except the rich, bizarre aunt has just been murdered. Fabian is now going to solve the murder first and then steal the statue.
There is a lot going on here, but that’s not really for the better. There are a dozen characters, none of whom have any interesting characteristics because it’s not about the people it’s about the story. But this is a murder mystery, it has to be about the people. Making the plot this busy just covers up weak writing. So many characters are absent from the movie for long stretches of time, but a better written murder mystery can pull characters in and out of focus without under-writing anyone else. Arguably every character is uninteresting here, so many there isn’t a better solution.
The biggest issue is that this is a comedy but there are no laughs. The lack of depth or insight into any of the characters means that all their idiosyncrasies just aren’t that funny. Fabian and the Deadly Wedding can be amusing at times, it can at least hold your attention for long enough to see how it’s resolved, but the film does itself no favours with the superficial writing, uninteresting characters, and a plot just trying to keep itself busy.
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