Austria cinema isn’t renowned for its comedic output, with recent years seeing the prominence of Michael Haneke, Ulrich Seidl, and Markus Schleinzer, none of whom knowingly indulge in too much levity. But here’s the Death Valley-dry Andrea Gets a Divorce, a bit of a misfiring comedy where the brutal gag of its title remains the most droll aspect.

The premise is rich in comic potential. Hangdog police officer Andrea (a suitably sour Birgit Minichmayr) is separated from loutish husband Andi (Thomas Stipsits). After he throws a drunken strop at a social gathering Andrea takes his car keys off him. She then unfortunately runs him over on her own way home, the ‘divorce’ of the title. She drives away and the body is hit again by local misfit and recovering alcoholic Franz (writer/ director Josef Hader).

There’s a certain bleak, tragicomic tone to the humour in Andrea Gets a Divorce that leaves it feeling closer to the films of Hader’s compatriots than you might imagine. The shots of tranquil, bucolic countryside that bookend the film are bitterly ironic, with rural Austria being populated by various racists, misogynists and idiots. Again, nothing that can’t be mined for humour, but one suspects that a lot of the comic beats employed by Hader (a popular comedian himself in Austria) are being lost in translation, especially when few pains are taken to imbue the characters with anything empathetic.

The difficulty in engaging with the film comes principally in its rather arch approach to its themes of moral dillemnas and culpability. Minichmayr certainly sells Andrea’s reluctance to own up to her part in her husband’s death. She’s terrified that admitting her involvement will jeopardise her transfer away from the stifling small town to the relative metropolis of St. Pölten, so her actions are understandable.

Where it falls down as a Dostoyevsky-esque morality tale is the unlikely friendship Andrea develops with Franz. Hader’s character is simply too pathetic to be an acceptable foil. There’s a subplot in an early series of Line of Duty where a criminal gang squat in the flat of a man with learning difficulties, creating such a sense of pathos that you want to gouge your eyes out. Watching Franz slip back into the clutches of alcoholism causing his painstakingly reconstructed life to collapse like dominoes creates a similar sensation. It would take the most delicate touch to play the situation for comedy, and this sardonic raised eyebrow of a film certainly lacks that.

Again, this has proven a big hit in its native Austria so there’s undoubtedly a potential disconnect of national sensibilities (and perhaps – full disclosure – the subject of alcohol abuse being treated with such flippancy is a finger jabbed directly on this reviewer’s particular buttons), and comedy is nothing if not entirely subjective. Beyond Hader’s comedic approach however – and one cautiously applauds him for not resorting to easy farce – Andrea Gets a Divorce fails as an insightful exploration of its themes, despite some fine performances from established Austrian talent.

Screening as part of Glasgow Film Festival 2025 on Thu 27 & Fri 28 Feb 2025