Joel Basman plays a tough guy in a wheelchair in this comedy by Oliver Paulus and Stefan Hillebrand.

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Valentin is paralyzed, bitter and annoyed by all the “spastics” around him in the clinic where he lives in the Southern Tirol. Eventually, he realizes that people like Lukas and Titus are actually quite all right. And then Valentin falls for one of the caregivers – who unfortunately already has a boyfriend. So Valentin and his new friends decide to teach him a lesson.

Paulus and Hillebrand serve up all the usual ingredients of a feel-good: buddies, a love interest, wavering emotions, youthful jokes, a cool soundtrack and slick editing. Vielen Dank für Nichts is a package easily recognizable from the outside but still a lot of fun to unwrap. At the same time the movie manages not to be just a slapstick comedy.