User Reviews

In several interwoven stories this movie leads through the life of women in different ages. They all represent several generations in a community.

An aging mother that seeing herself alone again with her husband tries to re-spark the relationship and simultaneously rediscover herself. A middle-aged daughter battling with the motherhood of three little children and the need to maintain her attractiveness towards her husband and herself. And finally, the 25-year-old daughter and sister longing to realize her dream in a world where image is of the upmost importance.

In a simultaneous narration we find a teacher, confronting her pupils with the notion of self-consciousness while she herself avoids any kind of commitment. And then the discovery of the first love and the cutting loose of the mothers' influence of one teenager.

The characters show a dense personality as they struggle through their frustrations, needs and relationships, which we discover are mostly taking part in the core of two families.

Beautifully laid out scenes show us the mood and the state of mind of the characters. The pace is the right one to confer the right density and normality to their routine.

As it always happens with well-structured stories we, the spectator, find ourselves longing to know what happened after to all of the participants.

This movie is symptomatical for the bleak state german film is in.

Too damn long without a compelling story to make up for it. It takes itself very, very serious although the plots are extremely predictable from the get go. It wants you to pay attention so badly, but has nothing to back it up with.

There literally is no conflict in the whole movie beside the storyline of Caroline Herfurths Character. Various supposedly "seious" scenes are unintentionally hilarious because of the dramatic tone while completely lacking great conflict. For instance the scene in the parents house when the mom lashes out on her daughter all of a sudden. There wasnt any conflict between the two beforehand. At least not one that would justify the screaming. All the issues discussed in this scene, literally come up in this scene first. You basically see two very privileged characters shouting at each other about nothing.

The storylines are also very unrealistic and have a lot of plotholes. As usual in german film the issue at hand is handled very superficially. This could be a great opportunity for showing the hardships of women in the modern times, but the plots are so unbelievable and void of any resemblance to real life it is hard to take them serious. The biggest letdown was the character of Leyla. It would be so refreshing to see an actual teenage girl growing up in a time when social media rules and sets up unrealistic expectations of a girls body. Of course none of it is shown. There is a beautiful boy chasing her right from the start with no explanation why whatsoever. They dont even talk to each other, there is no chemistry between them at all. I actually want to live in the world the writers of this movie are living in. None of value would be lost if this plotline would be cut out entirely.

Some moments in the relationship of the two teachers could be classified as sexual harassment aswell. If you are making a movie about hardships of women, dont depict catcalling as something positive or funny. This is exactly what women in real life have an issue with.

The realtionship of the two teachers is very superficial aswell. Scratch that, every relationship in this movie is superficial. This guy instantly falls in love with the girl and pushes her into a relationship by admitting his love to her AFTER ONE DATE. This is not normal behaviour and a huge red flag. The woman teacher is completely right for not engaging in this one.

The audience should feel good in the end, but NONE of the "conflicts" were resolved through conversation. We see a toxic, rich family who can not communicate with each other without screaming. The resolution comes out of nowhere. Not kidding, none of the "conflicts" in the movie are resolved by talking to each other. As it would be in a healthy relationship.

Also a symptom of german film is the extremely unbelievable behaviour of the characters. No human being acts this way as portrayed in this movie. The actions are overly dramatic, the dialog is void of authenticity. To the point you can not relate to any character at all. Very much of the plot is not justified by anything.

The baseball thing is just bad writing, squeezed in to justify the irratic and problematic behaviour of the mother. How can anybody relate to a character like that? Why was this in the movie in the first place?

The characters are as always very privileged, they are at very least upper middle class, live in lavish houses and once again i want to live in the world the writers are living in. I also want their problems because the movie depicts them as non existent.

The amount of cliches in this film is too damn high, but also usual for german movies nowadays. You can bet your bottom dollar the dance instructor is a fiery, extremely good looking latino-spanish man who doesnt care for anyones personal boundaries. The dancing lesson is of course a charade to set up the cheating storyline, who would have guessed? The handsome young man falling for Leyla all of sudden, the white knight in shining armor. The woman who needs a man to show her that love and relationship is indeed possible.

It gets so tiring after a while and is extremely painful to watch because you can predict EXACTLY what happens next. It borders on disrespect for the audiences time.

I really can not understand the high review scores, and yes i am a little bit irritated because of it. I went into this movie with my hopes up that a big mainstream german movie wouldn't suck for once but i was, of course, utterly disappointed. This is not a movie to watch, this is a movie to turn on while doing house chores or cooking not really paying attention.

I give it 4 stars because sadly it is still one of the better mainstream german films and i like the performance of Leyla and the husband.

"Wunderschön" is a German theatrical release from 2022 and the title means "utterly beautiful". I am saying this because right now there does not seem to be an international title yet for this film from my country. This adjective is used on one occasion in the film when we watch a photo shoot. The "wunderschön" is quoted from a camera man and supposed to be understood in an ironic sense because the fashion industry ruins one protagonist's life and health with how she tries to lose weight and also abuses drugs in the process. The unintentional irony, however, is that the word "wunderschön" can also be used in an ironic sense for this film. People in the audience who thought this was a wunderschönes movie, an utterly beautiful movie, are just like the camera man who cannot see an abomination for what it really is. Karoline Herfurth is the one in charge here in terms of all key areas and she has turned into one of the most successful German (female) directors by now. I cannot see why though. She has acted for over 20 years, but what I have seen from her behind the camera was not good and that is a really gentle way to put it. I'm curious to see her direct a full-on drama at some point, but from what I have seen now there is no way I would use Herfurth even in the same sentence like Schrader when it comes to the most successful recent German female filmmakers. Herfurth has two co-writers here, both slightly over 40 and not particularly experienced for that. With one of those she has worked before. Herfurth herself is slightly under 40. Her previous successes have resulted in her getting to work with Germany's most famous actors here. The names Gedeck, Tschirner, Schüle everybody knows in Germany and their male counterparts Król, Mücke and Brückner are probably not far behind in terms of fame and popularity. I have no respect for them though that they joined this movie. Also no respect for the German Film Academy for nominating this film and giving it an award even. Ridiculous that this is supposed to have the best score. It was nothing but loud and desperate to make poorly-written scenes feel special. As bad as the rest of the film. Herfurth I only respect a bit because she stayed out of the FJG sequel instead of cashing in on another terrible comedy sequel.

I think for the rest of my review I will just do some brainstorming and mention all the scenes where the film felt off the mark. I admit that until the middle of the movie I was still hoping I could give this two stars out of five at least (four out of ten), but then the drop in quality for the rest of the film was just so atrocious that there is no way and I think in total it's closer to zero. This key moment was basically when Gedeck's character kissed her dance teacher. Or the other way around, but she let him. Of course, we must understand that Gedeck is a truly desirable woman despite her age and if a man wants to be and stay with her, he must fulfill her every wish immediately, even if it involves breaking down a wall. The dance segment there with these two was already cringeworthy. Exactly in a nutshell all that is wrong with German comedy. The characters always have to be in the center. Every scene must be memorable and special. Zero subtlety. Of course, the hot dance teacher only wants to dance with Gedeck's character, only wants to kiss her later on. Of course, Król's character loses his cool and runs out of the building and never returns instead of supporting his wife. How low! I don't even want to think how we would be supposed to see him as a really despicable character if it had been him who had kissed another woman. But her not initiating the kiss and leaving right away and confessing it to her man makes it all right of course. I once saw Gedeck as a talented actress, but by now I think she is absolutely limited and also she is one of the weaker if not weakest parts of Das Leben der Anderen, even if that film still kinda keeps the façade up for her. The divorce plan here in the end is also something you always see in these films. Total escalation towards the end. Add to said divorce comment the drug overdose, the angry mother who does not want her daughter to play baseball and the tearful escalation between the two teachers. Of course, all this is fixed effortlessly for the happy ending there. Schüle's character is home and doing better. The mother watches the baseball game and is happy for her child, the two teachers are a couple and the two elderly characters are also together again.

Honestly with this shoddy elaboration on anorexia and drug abuse, I feel it is really abysmal how people who struggle this way in real life are almost made fun of in this movie due to the poor writing. I would not even blame Schüle. Nobody could have made this work. It is also all predictable since the start. The chubby girl will find passion in sport. The two older characters will get together, but the man has to serve his woman basically for them to do so. Not too much different with Herfurth's character. There her husband also has to change his life for her to be happy. And Tschirner's character also finally gives in after the PE teacher keeps courting her. It's always the same sadly with German comedies. They are so often so misandric. More cringeworthy moments included the voice-over narration with Herfurth herself giving us the oh so important lesson from this movie. Also a problem with German comedy films that they always take themselves so utterly serious. But an equally big problem is what I mentioned earlier, namely the desperate attempt that every scene must be a winner and spectacular. I mean okay if they included one or two from the fart during sex, the boy entering the room, the young girl with her tragic background, the chubby girl finding meaning and a boyfriend, one character being in a coma briefly, a couple about to get a divorce, a character having her 25th birthday, the same character cutting off all her hair and I could go like that for hours. But it's all too much, even for a film with this massive duration of way over two hours. I wish it would have been shorter.

There were moments when you could see how obviously very poor the writing was. The first would be when Herfurth's character is in her car and on the phone because she is about to have a job interview it was I think and this is not what a phone conversation looks like. Where one character constantly talks and repeats what the other says when the other has literally no time at all to say anything. I cannot believe Herfurth did not recognize this herself as the one in charge of this movie and it was only her in this scene. Nobody else. The second example would be at the supermarket when the cashier mentions the product one character buys. Also for comedy purposes because a male character hears it that it is a product for women. I have been thousands of times in supermarkets probably and it never ever happened like this. Not with me, not with the one in front or behind me. It was just creating an awkwardly funny situation that is void of all realism. Besides, when was the last time that two of your teachers had sex in a car in front of the school? Or inside the gym even? Of course, it always happens, the students just don't see it. Tschirner played one of these two characters and with her it is similar for me like with Gedeck. Found her okay once, but her quirky clumsy routine is something she shows with every single character she portrays and it is simply nothing talented, creative or funny anymore. Many people are misled and think it is, but it is not. Scenes like the one when she says it stinks and takes another direction to not run into the other teacher were a big mess. Very stereotypical also how she is such a cool teacher who eats melons with her students during class, where they stay on their chairs when the bell rings when she teaches them about feminism and who is asked by her students about her special item and who watches her student's baseball game in the stadium. Her best friend other teacher is of course also for reasons of diversity a chubby Black woman. You always get this with low-quality German comedy films. They cannot impress the artist, but at least satisfy the mainstream.

I could go on and on about all that is wrong with this movie like the "funny" baseball to the face scene, the cat food joke etc. Probably until I reach 20k characters, but luckily the limit is at 10k, so we are approaching the end. Good moments are not existent, okay moments are the exception. I guess the inclusion of Dirty Dancing was alright, the girl wanting to know how her mother feels, Herfurth's character's breakdown when she reads the allegedly sexist children's book, but as with the former when was the last time two of your teachers were making out in the grass while you were running laps in physical education? No offense, but the stuff you see here is all fictitious. It wants to be a realistic movie, but it is not one bit, especially not with the sheer quantity of all these scenes. One or two of these inclusions would have been enough. And what is with the chubby girl having the German flag on her uniform in the end? Is she all of a sudden playing for the national team. Yeah, right. Again proof that they need all the exaggerations and that subtlety is nothing you find in German mainstream comedies. What a mess! Just like how the character circle closes unrealistically: Herfurth is Tschirner's best friend and the latter's student is the daughter of the boss of Schüle, who herself is Herfurth's sister-in-law. Nope. There were like 500 people watching this last night at the open-air theater, which was maybe the fullest theater I have ever been to. So maybe you cannot blame the people who make garbage like this, but you have to blame the ones who pay for it to watch. That's all. I mean Schweiger is no god either, but this terrible he was not. Schweighöfer maybe. Massive thumbs-down.