"Lottoschein ins Glück", also known as "Geld oder Liebe" (not a better title either), is a German television movie from 2003 that runs for 1.5 hours as they usually do and was directed by Dirk Regel and written by Markus Mayer. If you take a look at the other works from this duo, you already know you should not get your hopes up way too high when it comes to liking this one. Anyway, the cast is still decent, better than for most other small screen films I'd say. I don't want to get into detail about every cast member here, but Mariele Millowitsch is famous enough, has been for a long time and out of her dad's footsteps for sure. Miroslav Nemec most tatort fans will be surprised to see with long hair for once. Then there is also the young Max Riemelt, who was really a prolific child actor back then. And Kurka and Willems, who play the main characters' daughter turned into stunning young women since this film was made over 15 years ago. Now in the title you can already see the lottery reference and that one character won big. This is of course also a key aspect of the film, even if it took surprisingly long for this to happen given they named the movie after that occurrence. Basically until the 45-minute mark. Everything before that is mostly introduction and presentation. Which was tolerable admittedly. I do believe this filmw as worth seeing until the 45-minute markt. But then it really went south pretty quickly and sacrificed all credible moments and just became a huge joke and not a good one. Winning several million with the lottery is already coincidence enough and if they include something like that, then maybe they should keep it low in terms of other not too likely events.
The whole story line about the dog who left added nothing except pseudo drama and filler material. And after they have been visiting every animal shelter and asking so many people, all out of nowhere the dog finally runs into Nemec in a big city like this. Unreal. There were other weak moments. Like how she won the auction for the house at the end (she already did, didn't she?) was extremely rushed for unrealistic happy ending purposes. Or when her ex-husband is ready to get together with her (and of course he dups his lover) after all that happened. Come on he is not an idiot. He knew 100% he wouldn't get her back and even if he did, then was he really willing to go for that although he clearly does not love her anymore. The ways in which they showed him to us as the main antagonist were downright ridiculous. And at the same time, her behavior towards him (despite him leaving her) do not exactly feel too likable either. I mean come on, he rushes to the hospital because his daughter has a minor injury and first thing she talks about is his affair, also in the presence of other people. That did not feel right at all. Aside from that, there is a sub story involving Nemec's character's son and his first love. That also added nothing I would say overall. This son is played by Riemelt by the way and I was surprised to see Nora Binder in here (even if she has just one scene) from "Mein Leben & Ich", a show that I really really liked back in the day. One of the dfeining shows of my teenage/early grown-up years I'd say. Okay theer are at least half a dozen more scenes when the film hits rock-bottom, but I am kinda glad I forgot about them already and I am sure you get my point anyway about how this movie is a failure.
On a final side-note, the best friend character to Millowitsch's is really cringeworthy too. And I found her extremely unlikable. But maybe that is just me and the actress clearly also suffers from bad writing. Then again, she could have refused the role, which she didn't. Just one exmaple when the dog is missing and she says something like her friend should be glad and there is amix-up if they are talking about the ex-husband or the dog and when it is cleared-up, Millowitsch's character says something like in a rage mode how all men are running away from her and that was truly cringeworthy and felt so written and unauthentic like something she really could have said this moment. No blame to M.M. Nobody could have made this line work. So yes, this film is just a gigantic mess that gets worse and worse the longer it goes. Highly not recommended.
The whole story line about the dog who left added nothing except pseudo drama and filler material. And after they have been visiting every animal shelter and asking so many people, all out of nowhere the dog finally runs into Nemec in a big city like this. Unreal. There were other weak moments. Like how she won the auction for the house at the end (she already did, didn't she?) was extremely rushed for unrealistic happy ending purposes. Or when her ex-husband is ready to get together with her (and of course he dups his lover) after all that happened. Come on he is not an idiot. He knew 100% he wouldn't get her back and even if he did, then was he really willing to go for that although he clearly does not love her anymore. The ways in which they showed him to us as the main antagonist were downright ridiculous. And at the same time, her behavior towards him (despite him leaving her) do not exactly feel too likable either. I mean come on, he rushes to the hospital because his daughter has a minor injury and first thing she talks about is his affair, also in the presence of other people. That did not feel right at all. Aside from that, there is a sub story involving Nemec's character's son and his first love. That also added nothing I would say overall. This son is played by Riemelt by the way and I was surprised to see Nora Binder in here (even if she has just one scene) from "Mein Leben & Ich", a show that I really really liked back in the day. One of the dfeining shows of my teenage/early grown-up years I'd say. Okay theer are at least half a dozen more scenes when the film hits rock-bottom, but I am kinda glad I forgot about them already and I am sure you get my point anyway about how this movie is a failure.
On a final side-note, the best friend character to Millowitsch's is really cringeworthy too. And I found her extremely unlikable. But maybe that is just me and the actress clearly also suffers from bad writing. Then again, she could have refused the role, which she didn't. Just one exmaple when the dog is missing and she says something like her friend should be glad and there is amix-up if they are talking about the ex-husband or the dog and when it is cleared-up, Millowitsch's character says something like in a rage mode how all men are running away from her and that was truly cringeworthy and felt so written and unauthentic like something she really could have said this moment. No blame to M.M. Nobody could have made this line work. So yes, this film is just a gigantic mess that gets worse and worse the longer it goes. Highly not recommended.
