"Hochzeit zu viert" is a German television movie from 2001, so this one has its 20th anniversary soon. It runs for slightly under 1.5 hours and was written by Heidi Kranz and directed by Peter Probst. Looking at the two bodies of work from this duo, it must be said that Probst's is slightly better than Kranz'. He has a few solid projects there, but also many really weak ones, while Kranz basically has bad films and especially television shows only. So your expectations here should not be too high. And even then, they will still be disappointed. There I blame mostly Probst because the script is key here and boy is it bad from beginning to end. This is especially disappointing becauee I think Elmar Wepper is a fairly talented actor and has proved that also on the big screen. Harald Krassnitzer at least has charisma. I don't watch Tatort and have not really seen in in other project at least not that I remember, but he isn't a mess. This description would rather fit Michaela May. She has been in horrible television projects for decades now it seems really and I think she has zero talent and zero range. This does become painfully obvious during these 90 minutes. The best (or worst) example is when she has to show us that her character is angry. The moment she raises her voice is pure cringe. I mean of course the lines written for her are pretty bad anyway, but she (unlike the others) manages to make them even worse. Unreal how she still gets cast. Yes she has recognition value and she is somewhat attractive for her age, but like I said acting talent is not existent for her. Renée Soutendijk is the only one from the four lead actors that I am not really familiar with. I see she was in Suspiria not too long ago, so probably she has the best international career from this quartet, but she also did not do anything memorable in this film we got here. On the contrary, there are one or two moment during which she is really bad with her line delivery and face expressions. Just not as bad as May constantly is. Also she plays a Dutch character in this film and the only explanation for that for me is that she is not capable of speaking German without an accent. There is nothing in the story that justifies this, but yeah don't tell me it is that she is going back to the Netherlands for a while. It is pretty ridiculous also that they say she works as a tranlsator and they are depicting her as somebody who is really gifted with languages while in real life like I said she is the opposite and can't speak German without an accent.
Now as for the story, I already said in the title of my review what I think about it. It is horribly bad. It's like feminism gone really wrong. We have two married couples who seem really charming and happy and are friends with each other, but as the film goes on it shows that really everything is a mess. One of the guys had a ONS a while ago, while the other has an affair. So the men are depicted as ruthless and disrespectful towards their wives. And the women? Well, when they find out what happened, they are immediately courted by younger much more attractive men. #metoo must love it. Sadly, there is nothing this film does in terms of convincing chartacter writing and it is all shallow and for the sake of it. And don't think the ending changes anything. When we get the info that Krassnitzer's character now takes good care of the children as he is about to lose his wife, this is really with the only purpose of coming up with a very unrealistic happy ending again where everybody is united with their "significant others" (the " because it is no such thing) again and all is back to normal. You know who this film is most disrespectful to? Women. Who act as stupid and shallow as the ones in this film here. Sure we also get thhis pseudo drama towards the end when it seems that everything is lost after Soutendijk's and Krassnitzer's characters have an ungly argument after seeing each other again for the first time after a while, but of course it means nothing and back in Holland she tells her lover that the relationship with her husband (her family) is not finished for her yet and that she will return to him most likely. As for the other couple, there is so much going on there also from the woman's side like she says she is sexually disgusted by her man, while being attracted to that other guy, lawyer or something, but who cares of course they get together in the end again too. I honestly felt really bad for the actor who has to play her suitor. I mean everybody had bad lines written for them, but when we have him confess to May's character that all he did was just to see her more often is when the film hits rock-bottom. Not even Daniel Day-Lewis could have made this work. As for the girls, of course we are supposed to see them as confident successful women who don't deserve being treated the way they are. Yeah, right. How about if you really suffer that much, then don't end up with other men immediately after (not even) separating from your partners. So overall, there is just one word that summarizes the film perfectly: Appalling. Even more disgusting that the script comes from a male writer. By the way, Immanuel is also not a good actress, even if fairly attractive, but she does not have the material to make an impact here anyway. She is just included to show us how sleazy Krassnitzer's character is. And to punish him towards the end. Her pregnancy and how she shows up with her lover's children in the middle of the film is again just for pseudo drama and tough to watch. A definite contender for worst film of 2001, not just from Germany, but in general. Even for German afternoon television where it was shown today, this is way too bad. Stay far away, for your on good.
Now as for the story, I already said in the title of my review what I think about it. It is horribly bad. It's like feminism gone really wrong. We have two married couples who seem really charming and happy and are friends with each other, but as the film goes on it shows that really everything is a mess. One of the guys had a ONS a while ago, while the other has an affair. So the men are depicted as ruthless and disrespectful towards their wives. And the women? Well, when they find out what happened, they are immediately courted by younger much more attractive men. #metoo must love it. Sadly, there is nothing this film does in terms of convincing chartacter writing and it is all shallow and for the sake of it. And don't think the ending changes anything. When we get the info that Krassnitzer's character now takes good care of the children as he is about to lose his wife, this is really with the only purpose of coming up with a very unrealistic happy ending again where everybody is united with their "significant others" (the " because it is no such thing) again and all is back to normal. You know who this film is most disrespectful to? Women. Who act as stupid and shallow as the ones in this film here. Sure we also get thhis pseudo drama towards the end when it seems that everything is lost after Soutendijk's and Krassnitzer's characters have an ungly argument after seeing each other again for the first time after a while, but of course it means nothing and back in Holland she tells her lover that the relationship with her husband (her family) is not finished for her yet and that she will return to him most likely. As for the other couple, there is so much going on there also from the woman's side like she says she is sexually disgusted by her man, while being attracted to that other guy, lawyer or something, but who cares of course they get together in the end again too. I honestly felt really bad for the actor who has to play her suitor. I mean everybody had bad lines written for them, but when we have him confess to May's character that all he did was just to see her more often is when the film hits rock-bottom. Not even Daniel Day-Lewis could have made this work. As for the girls, of course we are supposed to see them as confident successful women who don't deserve being treated the way they are. Yeah, right. How about if you really suffer that much, then don't end up with other men immediately after (not even) separating from your partners. So overall, there is just one word that summarizes the film perfectly: Appalling. Even more disgusting that the script comes from a male writer. By the way, Immanuel is also not a good actress, even if fairly attractive, but she does not have the material to make an impact here anyway. She is just included to show us how sleazy Krassnitzer's character is. And to punish him towards the end. Her pregnancy and how she shows up with her lover's children in the middle of the film is again just for pseudo drama and tough to watch. A definite contender for worst film of 2001, not just from Germany, but in general. Even for German afternoon television where it was shown today, this is way too bad. Stay far away, for your on good.
