Half Rate Honeymoon: A dusty, charming relic

Is it worth the watch?

If you have a thing for old European comedies, you’ll probably find Half Rate Honeymoon cozy. It’s light, it’s fast, and it doesn't try to change your life. If you hate black-and-white films with grainy audio or stories that rely on people not opening their mouths to explain basic problems, stay far away. 🚩

It’s not exactly The Hound of the Baskervilles, but it’s got a rhythm that kept me awake. Mostly.

The vibe

There’s this specific kind of chaos in movies like Bachelor's Folly that I think you’ll recognize here. It’s all about people running through doors, looking flustered, and wearing suits that look like they cost a month’s rent. 🎩

Gyula Kabos is doing the heavy lifting, as per usual. He has this way of looking at the camera like he’s just realized he left the oven on back in 1935. It’s a specific brand of anxiety that feels weirdly relatable today.

Some notes I scribbled down:

• The pacing is frantic. Sometimes it feels like they were running out of film stock.
• The dialogue is sharp, but the subtitles I had were… well, let's just say they were guessing half the time.
• There is a scene in a hotel lobby that goes on for five minutes too long. It stops being funny and starts feeling like you’re actually stuck in that lobby waiting for a check-in. 🏨
• The lighting in the bedroom scenes is surprisingly moody? Like, who was the cinematographer trying to impress?

It’s hard not to compare this to things like Gypsy Love, though they aren't trying to do the same thing. This is just a standard farce. It’s not trying to be high art, and I honestly appreciate that.

The messy parts

The middle act sags. It really, really sags. There’s a subplot involving a misplaced suitcase that I’m still not sure I understood. Was it even important? Probably not. 💼

It reminded me of the narrative sprawl in Princesse Mandane, but without the ambition. Sometimes a movie just needs to get to the point, but this one likes to wander off into the hallway to chat with the neighbors.

Still, you watch for the human moments. The way a character blinks when they’re caught in a lie. Or the way the background extras look like they’re just happy to be getting paid for the day. It’s not a masterpiece. It’s just a movie. And that’s fine. Sometimes we need a bit of that.