User Reviews

"Die Boxerin" or "The Boxer" or "About a Girl" is a German 105-minute film from 2004 and probably the most known career effort still today for writer Klein and director Deus and honestly looking at the quality here I am not surprised they did not come up with anything good despite how much time has passed. I may be a bit biased here as I always thought Katharina Wackernagel to be a truly overrated actress who is not lead actress material at all, but you could also say this film we have here is evidence that I am correct as even if there are not many good, let alone memorable, moments in the script, she still made the overall material look worse. The only reason this may not be obvious to everybody may be the tight pants she is wearing throughout the film or the fact that the actress who played the biggest female supporting character is even more bland. The conflict between these two is just as rushed as how they get together again. More talented actors like Brambach and Striesow are honestly wasted for characters that really don't offer anything to the actors that they could shine with their performances. Wackernagel is one that really delivers nowhere except the likable character approach and if that falls flat here too (and it does!), then there is really nothing to hope for neither when it comes to her personal happiness nor to her professional success. The victim (of her mother) card only works for so long and definitely not for 100 minutes. There were definitely scenes in here that had me close to giving the film an even lower rating, but overall it was just bad and forgettable, but probably not disastrous. The moment the film ended was chosen wisely as it was not one of these scenes where the film took itself far more seriously than it should have. But as a whole you would be correct if you call it a very poor man's Million Dollar Baby, a great film about a female boxer from the same year. This German movie here however is not underseen despite how few have seen it. It's just not good. Go for something else instead. Final note: Even a while after I watched this, I am still undecided if the Manfred Krug karaoke scene is the best or worst this film had to offer.