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Not much happens in the life of one tubby small-town salt miner (Horst Krause). And that’s a problem for German writer/director Michael Schorr’s offbeat but ultimately plodding debut. Forced into retirement with his dour but dutiful buddies (Harald Warmbrunn and Karl-Fred Müller), Schultze shuffles into a premature twilight of fishing, chess, and too many cold cuts. That is, until he catches a burst of zydeco on late-night radio. He pumps out the lively tune on his accordion, and a smile quivers across his great meaty head. Slowly (very slowly), he dares to take a risk — even trading his traditional polka for what his horrified music club calls "Yankee jungle music." Krause musters much emotion in the laconic role, and Schorr lightens Schultze’s heart-tugging predicament with absurd, blackly comic details. Yet the film goes south in every way when Schultze, in a plot turn telegraphed early, scores a trip to a polka fest in New Braunfels, Texas. From here, poignancy turns to preciousness, leaving this oom-pah-pah tale in need of some oomph. In German with English subtitles. (114 minutes)
BY ALICIA POTTER
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