"Alle Kinder brauchen Liebe", which means "All Children need Love", or "Das Waisenhaus" (The Orphanage), is a German television film from 2000, so this one is already 20 years old now almost. Actually really exactly 19 years because it aired for the first time also for the holiday season I believe. The director is Karsten Wichniarz, a pretty prolific filmmaker for the small screen, but looking at all the other stuff he did it needs to be said that there really does not seem to be a great deal of a quality included sadly. This film is not an exception, but I will get to that later. The writer is Christian Lang and this is his only filmmaking project and judging from the level of the screenplay here this was probably a good thing. However, it needs to be said that I watched several other small screen releases here from Germany for the Christmas season and some of them had very prolific writers attached and they were still garbage. Now for the cast of these 1.5 hours: Pohl, Troegner, Pleitgen and Schafmeister (a personal favorite) really isn't too bad at all and it's not just them who are experienced, also the supporting cast members here are, even if their names don't sound familiar to me. So the cast certainly offered the chance for a good movie.
The actual outcome is really disappointing though. Like I said in the title of my review this is a film that includes so much pseudo-emotional drama that feels just for the sake of it that it is impossible to stomach. Pohl's central character is the best example. Basically she is in it from beginning to end with her only mission being to save an orphanage from being torn down in order to make space for building something new. I think it was a retirement home, but it is not that important what exactly it was. The key message is: "homeless children" and as the film takes place during the holiday season this means "homeless children during Christmas". I mean the photo is really telling enough here I guess. I guess it would have been fine had this film such a sob story from all kinds of perspectives if they managed to write the characters convincingly and also if the film felt authentic and realistic. But it doesn't. The drama felt very staged and the dialogue writing was not exactly a revelation either. Plus it must be said that almost all the kids actors were really bad (just take one example when they tell Pohl's character that she is the one who always gives and now they want her to be the one who takes a gift). I'm pretty sure almost none of them decided to become professional actors after this one-time adventure. At least I hope so for them or otherwise that they managed to step up their craft since then. This would be essential for a career in film. Now I don't want to go into detail about all the bad scenes there are and examples of writing, but trust me there are more than enough. Just one example from the very end basically. We have this boy who collapses pretty much after hearing that another character is about to be reunited with her sick father (now that announcement scene was cringeworthy enough too), but yeah when we see the boy in bed afterwards and there is talk about how he could die or so (pseudo drama alert), but nobody has the idea to really call a doctor. Are you kidding me? Needless to say that two scenes later or so the boy was well and healthy again pretty much walking around with the rest of the gang in the usual unrealistic 100% happy ending these films always have. Oh yeah and in the last 5 minutes, they also quickly included a little story about how out of nowhere Pohl's character is reunited with her (to her) unknown dad. Oh my. It's really embarrassing how she says something like "that would be too much happiness" or so and she is exactly right. To much unrealistic happiness for this movie and then they are still going to pretty much confirm he is her dad. The cringe. And don't think the 80 minutes before that are any better. Not at all. I wish I could say something more positive here, especially in the face of Pohl and Pleitgen not being alive anymore, but it is just impossible. This movie is a disastrous mess and nobody should watch it, not even in German afternoon television, so best would be if it doesn't air anymore. Massive thumbs-down.
The actual outcome is really disappointing though. Like I said in the title of my review this is a film that includes so much pseudo-emotional drama that feels just for the sake of it that it is impossible to stomach. Pohl's central character is the best example. Basically she is in it from beginning to end with her only mission being to save an orphanage from being torn down in order to make space for building something new. I think it was a retirement home, but it is not that important what exactly it was. The key message is: "homeless children" and as the film takes place during the holiday season this means "homeless children during Christmas". I mean the photo is really telling enough here I guess. I guess it would have been fine had this film such a sob story from all kinds of perspectives if they managed to write the characters convincingly and also if the film felt authentic and realistic. But it doesn't. The drama felt very staged and the dialogue writing was not exactly a revelation either. Plus it must be said that almost all the kids actors were really bad (just take one example when they tell Pohl's character that she is the one who always gives and now they want her to be the one who takes a gift). I'm pretty sure almost none of them decided to become professional actors after this one-time adventure. At least I hope so for them or otherwise that they managed to step up their craft since then. This would be essential for a career in film. Now I don't want to go into detail about all the bad scenes there are and examples of writing, but trust me there are more than enough. Just one example from the very end basically. We have this boy who collapses pretty much after hearing that another character is about to be reunited with her sick father (now that announcement scene was cringeworthy enough too), but yeah when we see the boy in bed afterwards and there is talk about how he could die or so (pseudo drama alert), but nobody has the idea to really call a doctor. Are you kidding me? Needless to say that two scenes later or so the boy was well and healthy again pretty much walking around with the rest of the gang in the usual unrealistic 100% happy ending these films always have. Oh yeah and in the last 5 minutes, they also quickly included a little story about how out of nowhere Pohl's character is reunited with her (to her) unknown dad. Oh my. It's really embarrassing how she says something like "that would be too much happiness" or so and she is exactly right. To much unrealistic happiness for this movie and then they are still going to pretty much confirm he is her dad. The cringe. And don't think the 80 minutes before that are any better. Not at all. I wish I could say something more positive here, especially in the face of Pohl and Pleitgen not being alive anymore, but it is just impossible. This movie is a disastrous mess and nobody should watch it, not even in German afternoon television, so best would be if it doesn't air anymore. Massive thumbs-down.
