Vincent Wants to Sea (Vincent will Meer in the original German - it's a similar pun) is a 2010 German drama film about a young man with Tourette's syndrome. After his mother dies, his politician father institutionalizes him. Along with his new friend Marie (who's anorexic) and his roommate Alexander (who has OCD), he goes off to Italy to fulfill his mother's wish that her ashes be put into the ocean where she honeymooned with Vincent's father. Since they're doing this in a car stolen from one of the therapists who works at the institution, they're pursued by the owner of the car (Dr. Rose) and Vincent's father.
It received an American adaptation in 2014 as The Road Within.
This film provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: In The Road Within. Robert (played by Robert Patrick) is with a woman named Monica. Monica is the name of Robert Patrick's character's partner in The X-Files.
- Ambiguous Ending: What happens to Vincent's mother's ashes? How about Marie? Or Vincent and Alexander? For that matter, does Vincent's father win his election? The movie's not saying.
- Bilingual Dialogue: When Vincent's father and Dr. Rose get pulled over by the Italian police officer, the officer's side of the conversation is naturally in Italian.
- Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: Vincent's mother's desire to have her ashes put into the Mediterranean Sea in the town where she and Vincent's father went on their honeymoon drives the plot.
- Chekhov's Gun: The mention of Marie's heart condition is several scenes before it actually comes up.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Vincent provides several - it's a movie about a guy with Tourette's syndrome, after all.
- Driven to Suicide: Marie at least knew she had a pretty good chance of dying, and it's implied that was intentional.
- Freak Out: Alexander after he gets into a fight with Vincent, due to the blood everywhere.
- Hassle-Free Hotwire: Averted rather hilariously. When Dr. Rose loses her car keys, Vincent's father has to hotwire the car and break the steering lock, which takes some time. This later causes them trouble when they get pulled over in Italy - the officer is understandably reluctant to believe they didn't steal the car, especially since Dr. Rose doesn't have ID with her.
- Hates Being Touched: Alexander, due to his OCD. Also Vincent, since it can trigger tics.
- Holding Hands: Vincent apparently had to have his hand pried away from his mother's by two people, days after she died.
- Hollywood Tourette's: It also shows the physical tics, but Vincent's Tourette's largely manifests in the form of Cluster F-Bombs.
- Love Triangle: Alexander is implied to have feelings for Marie, hence his reaction when he sees Vincent and Marie having sex.
- Neat Freak: Alexander, as expected given his OCD. When sent into a gas station to steal a map, he also makes off with several boxes of disposable gloves.
- Parental Neglect: Vincent's father, and he sees nothing particularly wrong with it.
- Pun-Based Title: In both English and German, no less. The English one plays on see/sea; the German one plays on mehr/Meer. (English: Vincent Wants to See/Sea. German, translated: Vincent Wants More/the Ocean.)
- Secretly Wealthy: Alexander has about 17,000 euros (about 20,000 USD) from his orphan's pension. This is especially notable since Vincent and Marie were under the impression they had somewhere under eleven euros between them.
- The Shrink: Dr. Rose, who doesn't fit cleanly into any of the categories.
- Slave to PR: Vincent's father. Dr. Rose actually manages to get him to keep looking for Vincent by threatening to report Vincent for car theft and then call the media - there's an election coming up, and the press would love to hear about the mentally ill criminal son of a candidate.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted. There are, in fact, therapists, and one of them is a major character. However, she admits to having messed up badly with Marie (threatening to force-feed her, which drove her to steal the car and run), and in the end Vincent and Alexander decide to stay in the Italian town and not go back to the mental institution.
