Oskar Roehler aspires to Fassbinder-ian heights with Agnes and His Brothers, only to prove incapable of matching his muse’s storytelling skillfulness and aesthetic virtuosity. In this fitfully engaging but narratively messy tale of social and sexual suffering, three brothers find life complicated by their below-the-belt urges: government official Werner (Herbert Knaup) is driven mad by a frigid wife who no longer want to screw and a pot-cultivating son who likes to videotape Dad in compromising situations; librarian Hans-Jorg (Moritz Bleibtreau) is stricken by self-loathing and a sex addiction that compels him to partake in bathroom stall peeping; and Agnes (Martin Weiss) is a transsexual who, as a child, may or may not have been abused by her cold father, and who craves a meeting with her famous ex-boyfriend after being dumped by her current lover. What their dysfunctions and hang-ups have to do with one another is never made quite clear, partly because – despite a trio of strong lead performances – Roehler’s sketchy characters are devoid of fleshed-out motivations. But mainly, it’s because the writer/director’s script frustratingly leaves many questions unresolved, from what Agnes’ pressing medical condition is, to whether the siblings’ father really was a monster (a third-act sight gag off-handedly implies just the opposite, and thus that the men’s supposedly serious problems are all the result of a silly mistake), to what on Earth is up with an insanely baffling, out-of-left-field decision by Werner, while on the phone in his home office with business colleagues, to squat and squeeze out a Cleveland Steamer on the floor.
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