DVD Houston

The film starts with a major headhunting project for Clem (Ulrich Tukur, prev. at The Life of Others): he needs to approach and propose a new corporate job offer to a big oil company CEO. The more elusive this task becomes, the harder becomes for Clem to cope with his deeply-rooted problems. He's a middle-aged man squeezed in the margins of the corporate world with no true orientation on how to deal with family issues or even drinking. His last resort becomes a trip to Houston, Texas, a totally unfamiliar territory from the German structured ambient which triggers a major challenge on his life scope.

There are many screenplay virtues in Bastian Gunther's screenplay which truly shine on Clem's self-help scenes and especially in those with the sharp contrast between Clem's attitude to success in life compared to Robert's (Garret Dillahunt), a lonely hotel businessman who somehow connects with Clem and becomes his aide in the search for the CEO.

The hotel loneliness scenes depiction is superb -highligeted by Tukur's esoteric performance easily comparable to Bill Murray's in Lost in Translation) and combined with the fact that Clem's desperate hunt becomes progressively engaging for the viewer, make this European art film truly robust and worthy.