The Nora Standard

My critical methodology for certain German films is not complicated: if Nora Tschirner is in it, I’m watching it. No further argument needed. So when Mord ist mein Geschäft, Liebling came out—a caper comedy in which she plays a scatterbrained publishing employee who inadvertently catches the eye of a mobster, who then reinvents himself as a novelist just to stay near her—my review was effectively already written. The cast also included Rick Kavanian and Bud Spencer, both of whom understood the register exactly.

She has a quality on screen that’s hard to describe without embarrassing myself, so I’ll keep it brief: she’s funny without performing it, which is the only way to actually be funny, and she makes flustered look like a deliberate choice. The film is lightweight, knows it, and doesn’t apologize. My bar was simple—Nora is in it—and it cleared that bar without difficulty. Reliable standard. Never steered me wrong.