Ulrich Tukur can be seen in a double role in the new Hessen crime thriller "Tatort: Monsieur Murot's Holidays". Is it worth switching on?
The Wiesbaden LKA investigator Felix Murot actually only wants to spend a few days of summer vacation somewhere in Hessen in the countryside. But then, thanks to a short but intensive encounter, everything turns out differently than planned. In "Tatort: Monsieur Murot's Holidays" (November 22nd, 8:15 pm, the first) Ulrich Tukur (63, "And who takes the dog?") Plays a rather opposite double role.
This is what the "Tatort: The Vacation of Monsieur Murot" is all about
As soon as Felix Murot (Ulrich Tukur) has arrived on vacation and is enjoying a glass of wine in the garden of the local restaurant, the irritated waitress slams a knuckle on the table that he has not ordered. She confuses him with Walter Boenfeld (also Ulrich Tukur), a married and rather intrusive used car dealer who sits at the other end of the restaurant garden and waits in vain for his meal. Murot goes in search of the real owner of the knuckle and gets to know Walter, who is like one egg to another.
Inspired by this strange meeting, the two different men spend the evening together, drink too much and talk about life while taking a sauna. When Murot woke up the next day hungover on Walter's porch swing – and thanks to a drunken swap in the clothes of his doppelganger – the inspector discovered that Walter was killed on the road that night.
Was it his wife Monika (Anne Ratte-Polle) who Walter had said last night that she wanted to kill him? Murot decides to leave his everyday life as a detective temporarily behind, to immerse himself in the life of his twin and to investigate undercover. Murot falls more and more in love with the idea of leaving his old life behind. But Magda Wächter (Barbara Philipp) doesn't let her boss get away that easily …
Is it worth switching on?
Yes. The thrilling crime thriller has an entertaining basic idea, interesting dialogues and scenes and, thanks to the costumes, décor, music and, last but not least, the postcard-writing vacationer Murot, a good dose of 1960s / 1970s charm. In addition, actor Ulrich Tukur shows his skills again against the summer backdrop of rural Hesse in the Taunus region. Because despite the dual role, the audience never doubts which character – Murot or Boenfeld – is currently being seen. "You have to give the doppelganger a sharp contour that clearly stands out from the original," explains Tukur to the broadcaster.
The fact that he basically even plays three roles when he slips into the daily routine of the car dealer as a commissioner, tops the performance. "The real problem was to play Mr. Murot in the role of his doppelganger in such a way that he worked both as himself and as Walter Boenfeld," says the actor, confirming the challenge of this somewhat different undercover investigation. In the end it was purely a matter of feeling, but it worked quite well, he is rightly happy to say.
And episode leading actress Anne Ratte-Polle (born 1974, "The spoken word applies") confirms what her iconic appearance at the awarding of the Bavarian Film Prize at the beginning of the year gave a little foretaste: The theater star knows his trade. At that time she went down with the microphone that disappeared in the stage floor. In "Tatort" she is trusted to act as a cold-blooded murderer as well as an innocent wife.
"The Holidays of Monsieur Murot" plays with references to the film "The Holidays of Monsieur Hulot" (1953) by the French director Jacques Tati (1907-1982). Among other things, Murot's unusual serve in the sleek tennis scene is reminiscent of the film that was nominated for an Oscar in 1956 in the "Best Screenplay" category. "He is a tender romantic, a critic of civilization who shows the absurdities of our existence with amiable humor," says Tukur enthusiastically about Tati.