"Im Zweifel für die Liebe", which you could vaguely translate as "Innocent until proven in love", a little play on words on the legal term "in dubio pro reo", is a German television film from 2004, so this one is already over 15 years old. This and the fact that it is not a good film at all make me wonder how it is possible that this movie is still shown here in Germany. Oh well, crappy ARD Degeto makes it possible I guess. They always include all their movies in the program somewhere. Anyway, the director here is Johannes Fabrick and he has been making movie for a decade already when this one came out here. Looking at his body of work, it is pretty clear that you should not expect quality here. However, the body of work from writer Melanie Brügel is even considerably worse. She is less prolific, but really every film (and series) she has ever worked on has failure written all over it I must say. Shockingly bad filmography. She also directed her first film in the 90s, but then apparently had a break of almost a decade. I guess it would havebeen better if she had never returned to filmmaking instead of nowadays still being a prolific writer. Fabrick did not write the screenplays for his movies too frequently, so no surprise that somebody else was in charge of the penning here, even if I have a feeling that things would not have gotten any better with the director also showing up as a writer. The slightly good news for me here is that the lead actor of these almost 1.5 hours is Elmar Wepper. I kinda like him and think that he is considerably more talented than his brother Fritz, who has literally no versatility as far as I am concerned, while Elmar can sometimes pull of subtlety and his characters in general fairly nicely. However, of course he also needs help from a decent script and he sure isn't getting this here, which makes me believe that not even the most talented actor could not have pulled this off and turned it into a decent watch. Reality is that, despite Wepper trying his best, this film is an abomination for the most part.
The story is about a man whose woman wants a divorce because she feels as if he and his lethargy are getting in the way when it comes to achieving her dreams, most of all travelling. Said wife is played by Saskia Vester. Now, it is not too usual for this kind of films (i.e. afternoon Degeto productions) that the central character is male because they are going much more for female audiences, but Wepper is too much of a star you could say to play second fiddle to anybody and of course they also made sure that Vester's character, despite her decision, seems likable. She did not cheat, she does not want to steal their kid from him, she has no other man in her life. It is all about fulfilling her dream, so they really emphasized that she is a character that female audience members here would ant to trade places with because she is desirable and free-spirited. Or at least was meant this way. If reality is the same here or if it is lost in execution, that would be up to you to decide. I personally think they came short in terms of this approach, just like they came short about almost everything else here. There are many weak moments. The best example is really not the protagonist's romance life, but really what happens with his client who is struggling with his partner as well as child. Let's see what we have here: They are about to break up. He shows up at his lawyer's house. He is about to commit suicide. Wepper's character climbs up there to save him (with words) and others think he wanted to kill himself actually. The child goes missing. But it's nothing. All of a sudden, he is not the biological father. Then there is a twist that involves a lot of money and helps him to still be allowed to see his kid. Again, just to make sure: I am not talking about Wepper's character here, but about the client.
But while Wepper's story may not be as absurd as the other man's, it is still pretty messy at times. It allready starts in a really weak fashion with how he convinces his legal opposition in fact to talk to their daughter instead of going against eacch other and perhaps destroy their relationship for years to come. This was supposed to show us how he is still really human, while other lawyers are not, in this case the man's female lawyer. Or later on, one character says that he rather wants to work with him and not his colleague from the same law firm because the latter is more brutal (in other words). And Wepper's character is more gentle, more human. Besides, which lawyer (or human) would really cllimb up a truly high building, maybe risk his own life, to save a client. This really would have been more than enough, but taking Wepper's smug grin early on is just too much and also how he tells the story so full of himself to his wife, who then responds that she is willing to leave him. The only slightly unusual thing for this film was that in the end they were indeed going for a divorce, so not the 100% unrealistic happy ending you usually find in this kind of movies. But in order to make sure that still everybody is happy we see the two leave together and they still have a close connection apparently. And of course that Wepper found a new path for him in his life. This was really what counted the most and was maybe also the best aspect this film had to offer. This new connection also involved him spending more time with cookery, something he always wanted to do. This part of a story included actor Juraj Kukura and I liked him, so they pretty much got away with his relatively absurd story as well that he would employ Wepper's character (who has almost no experience) and even serve as a bit of a mentor to him. Their final talk while they were eating together was actually really sweet, almost touching. I wish he could have had more screen time. Another actor playing a minor character that I did not like at all, however, is Dietrich Hollinderbäumer. I just can't deal with those who are part of the "heute show" and support this format's left-wing propaganda. But that would be an entirely different story.
Overall, this movie here is one where it is a close call when I have to answer the question if this is just a weak movie or a failure. Despite the alright lead portrayal I am going for the latter. There are just too many weak and disappointing moments and scenes in here. The film also came extremely short in other key departments. The music is the best examples. Not necessarily the non-vocal soundtrack, but they used many songs in here and it sure feels a bit cringeworthy. Sometimes less is more and here it would definitely have been the case. Perhaps also with less famous songs. Most of the time, the inclusions were not fitting at all. And on one occasion, it was really bizarre, like the song played for not even ten seconds, then ended in a truly abrupt manner. The way you would expect it from an amateurish high school movie. As for the overall project, I give the outcome a definite thumbs-down here. Highly not recommended. The title is also a mess, only reason they went for it is because the main character(s) work(s/ed) as a lawyer, which goes even against the story of him finding happiness elsewhere, in another profession, and also he is not getting together with his wife (yet?), so the Liebe/love inclusion is also not accurate. Like I said, there were no smart thinkers in charge of this project and there are many pieces of evidence supporting this statement if we are using legal terms now. Watch something else instead.
The story is about a man whose woman wants a divorce because she feels as if he and his lethargy are getting in the way when it comes to achieving her dreams, most of all travelling. Said wife is played by Saskia Vester. Now, it is not too usual for this kind of films (i.e. afternoon Degeto productions) that the central character is male because they are going much more for female audiences, but Wepper is too much of a star you could say to play second fiddle to anybody and of course they also made sure that Vester's character, despite her decision, seems likable. She did not cheat, she does not want to steal their kid from him, she has no other man in her life. It is all about fulfilling her dream, so they really emphasized that she is a character that female audience members here would ant to trade places with because she is desirable and free-spirited. Or at least was meant this way. If reality is the same here or if it is lost in execution, that would be up to you to decide. I personally think they came short in terms of this approach, just like they came short about almost everything else here. There are many weak moments. The best example is really not the protagonist's romance life, but really what happens with his client who is struggling with his partner as well as child. Let's see what we have here: They are about to break up. He shows up at his lawyer's house. He is about to commit suicide. Wepper's character climbs up there to save him (with words) and others think he wanted to kill himself actually. The child goes missing. But it's nothing. All of a sudden, he is not the biological father. Then there is a twist that involves a lot of money and helps him to still be allowed to see his kid. Again, just to make sure: I am not talking about Wepper's character here, but about the client.
But while Wepper's story may not be as absurd as the other man's, it is still pretty messy at times. It allready starts in a really weak fashion with how he convinces his legal opposition in fact to talk to their daughter instead of going against eacch other and perhaps destroy their relationship for years to come. This was supposed to show us how he is still really human, while other lawyers are not, in this case the man's female lawyer. Or later on, one character says that he rather wants to work with him and not his colleague from the same law firm because the latter is more brutal (in other words). And Wepper's character is more gentle, more human. Besides, which lawyer (or human) would really cllimb up a truly high building, maybe risk his own life, to save a client. This really would have been more than enough, but taking Wepper's smug grin early on is just too much and also how he tells the story so full of himself to his wife, who then responds that she is willing to leave him. The only slightly unusual thing for this film was that in the end they were indeed going for a divorce, so not the 100% unrealistic happy ending you usually find in this kind of movies. But in order to make sure that still everybody is happy we see the two leave together and they still have a close connection apparently. And of course that Wepper found a new path for him in his life. This was really what counted the most and was maybe also the best aspect this film had to offer. This new connection also involved him spending more time with cookery, something he always wanted to do. This part of a story included actor Juraj Kukura and I liked him, so they pretty much got away with his relatively absurd story as well that he would employ Wepper's character (who has almost no experience) and even serve as a bit of a mentor to him. Their final talk while they were eating together was actually really sweet, almost touching. I wish he could have had more screen time. Another actor playing a minor character that I did not like at all, however, is Dietrich Hollinderbäumer. I just can't deal with those who are part of the "heute show" and support this format's left-wing propaganda. But that would be an entirely different story.
Overall, this movie here is one where it is a close call when I have to answer the question if this is just a weak movie or a failure. Despite the alright lead portrayal I am going for the latter. There are just too many weak and disappointing moments and scenes in here. The film also came extremely short in other key departments. The music is the best examples. Not necessarily the non-vocal soundtrack, but they used many songs in here and it sure feels a bit cringeworthy. Sometimes less is more and here it would definitely have been the case. Perhaps also with less famous songs. Most of the time, the inclusions were not fitting at all. And on one occasion, it was really bizarre, like the song played for not even ten seconds, then ended in a truly abrupt manner. The way you would expect it from an amateurish high school movie. As for the overall project, I give the outcome a definite thumbs-down here. Highly not recommended. The title is also a mess, only reason they went for it is because the main character(s) work(s/ed) as a lawyer, which goes even against the story of him finding happiness elsewhere, in another profession, and also he is not getting together with his wife (yet?), so the Liebe/love inclusion is also not accurate. Like I said, there were no smart thinkers in charge of this project and there are many pieces of evidence supporting this statement if we are using legal terms now. Watch something else instead.