"Mamas Flitterwochen" is a German television film from 2008, so this film is already over a decade old. The director is Thomas Jacob and one of the writers is Andy T. Hoelzel. There is not too much to say about those two. They are both retired now and their filmographies are made up of really weak movies like this one here. So it is pretty impossibly to be surprised because of the quality here. Or lack of quality I should say. The seccond writer is Ina Siefert. She was still younger when this was made, so is still active nowadays, however, not as a writer, but in her main profession as a composer. This film we have here has not credited a composer, but my guess is that she was doing the score for this film as well, which, if true, shows me that she has not only no talent in writing, but also no talent in composing with the really bad music here, especially in those moments when we see the female protagonist feel dizzy or even collapse and hear the equivalent of a Jaws soundtrack basically going all in full drama etc. Cringeworthy stuff. Maybe it was meant to attract attention away from the actress' acting, weak acting there, but honestly it brought out just the worst in both aspects. The actress is Ruth-Maria Kubitscher, who is really old now and has been in the industry for many decades and the fact that late in her career she still has to show up in movies like this, says nothing positive about her at all. Sure the script brings her down too, but nobody forced her to agree to be a part of this project. And also she is far from good, actually I wonder if she was equally bad in the 70s or so. The husband to her character here is played by Austrian Ernst Stankovski, who was/is even older, now in his 90s, but also now retired for almost a decade. Well, what can I say about him. He is not good either here, but not terrible I guess. The script brings everybody down. This also includes the younger actors and actresses especially. The women are more known than the men I suppose. Susanna Simon and Tina Ruland you have probably come across if you care about German film and television, the latter especially in terms of Simon. Both are over 50 know, were around the age of 40 back then and have been part of many projects. But this is also a case of quantity over quality for both of them. They are not good actresses and the way Ruland entered the film industry says it all. She has not gotten any betteer, just a different kind of crappy. Anyway, another thing that needs to be said is that this film is part of a trilogy, actually the third chapter and with all the time passed since then, it is good to be safe that there will be no fourth movie ever. Of course, they also had to deal with some stuff from the previous two films here like one actress apparently would not return for this film, so they just said her character left the country. Good decision from her in any case. Still, I must say that one film is already one film too many if the level is as low as it is here. A truly horrible film.
I will give you a few examples of scenes and inclusions that made it obvious that this is a really poor film. However, first of all I have to mention Kubitschek again. I have seen her in other films too and sometimes I went easy on her that it was just the material that sucked and not her performance, but after seeing this film (and the first from the trilogy too), there is no way I can say she is a good actress. Probably not even a mediocre actress. Okay, now about this film in specific: The dialogue writing was a gigantic mess to be honest. Extremely bad from beginning to end. Just two examples: One character has a business meeting with a group of Asian investors or something and she makes the most randomly embarrassing reference about the upcoming Olympic Games. But the worst moment 100% in terms of the dialogues is when one character has a conflict with another and he simply responds with a general wisdom about cleaning one's home. That was so embarrassing. I am not sure if this was supposed to be meant in a metaphoric or symbolic way, but it just went all kinds of wrong and the moment they were going for depth and significance here is the moment it all goes wrong. Of course, Kubitschek's character is also such a strong and independent woman that she explains in the end to her man that she did not want to talk about her illness because she would not be appreciated anymore or only for reasons of sympathy. Sigh. Cringe is real. The film already starts fairly low with the marriage between them, but this is still tolerable compared to the conflict out of nowhere briefly later hen Kubitschek's character is not ready to go on a six-week cruise ith her new husband. And let me not even get started about the bed stories between them earlier. What else? Oh yes, the daughters, two of them, also get their new cringe stories. One has to do with the female all of a sudden working and the male staying at home to be a dad and the switched trditional roles resulting in conflicts between the two, while the other has a story of a man so desperate at becoming the legal dad for a baby, but all these conflicts are declared irrelevant in the end when everybody realizes they should not have focused too much on themselves, but instead been there for the old lady. Of course. Needless to say that the stroke she suffers from has no long-term consequences and her brain is alright and what is her reaction when she finds out? "I know" Okay, not full of herself at all. Then again, the miraculous old lady surely could have been a neuroscientist if she wanted to in her life, that is how amazing she is. Oh yeah, there's also talk and action linked to changing the house, going alternative energy, installing a satellite on the roof etc. that the elderly lady is not happy about at all and even will get physically in the way of the construction crew. Before she collapses in the most dramatic fashion. This shall be all then. There is no talent in this film at all, no matter which perspective you take, also it is as anti-male a these German small screen releases by ARD Degeto frequently are and the additional inclusion of Ziegler Filmproduktion makes things only worse. Two minuses do not make a plus this time. Not at all. It rather feels like 200 minuses and if I gave 1 out of 10 rating, then I'd certainly do it here. Highly not recommended!
I will give you a few examples of scenes and inclusions that made it obvious that this is a really poor film. However, first of all I have to mention Kubitschek again. I have seen her in other films too and sometimes I went easy on her that it was just the material that sucked and not her performance, but after seeing this film (and the first from the trilogy too), there is no way I can say she is a good actress. Probably not even a mediocre actress. Okay, now about this film in specific: The dialogue writing was a gigantic mess to be honest. Extremely bad from beginning to end. Just two examples: One character has a business meeting with a group of Asian investors or something and she makes the most randomly embarrassing reference about the upcoming Olympic Games. But the worst moment 100% in terms of the dialogues is when one character has a conflict with another and he simply responds with a general wisdom about cleaning one's home. That was so embarrassing. I am not sure if this was supposed to be meant in a metaphoric or symbolic way, but it just went all kinds of wrong and the moment they were going for depth and significance here is the moment it all goes wrong. Of course, Kubitschek's character is also such a strong and independent woman that she explains in the end to her man that she did not want to talk about her illness because she would not be appreciated anymore or only for reasons of sympathy. Sigh. Cringe is real. The film already starts fairly low with the marriage between them, but this is still tolerable compared to the conflict out of nowhere briefly later hen Kubitschek's character is not ready to go on a six-week cruise ith her new husband. And let me not even get started about the bed stories between them earlier. What else? Oh yes, the daughters, two of them, also get their new cringe stories. One has to do with the female all of a sudden working and the male staying at home to be a dad and the switched trditional roles resulting in conflicts between the two, while the other has a story of a man so desperate at becoming the legal dad for a baby, but all these conflicts are declared irrelevant in the end when everybody realizes they should not have focused too much on themselves, but instead been there for the old lady. Of course. Needless to say that the stroke she suffers from has no long-term consequences and her brain is alright and what is her reaction when she finds out? "I know" Okay, not full of herself at all. Then again, the miraculous old lady surely could have been a neuroscientist if she wanted to in her life, that is how amazing she is. Oh yeah, there's also talk and action linked to changing the house, going alternative energy, installing a satellite on the roof etc. that the elderly lady is not happy about at all and even will get physically in the way of the construction crew. Before she collapses in the most dramatic fashion. This shall be all then. There is no talent in this film at all, no matter which perspective you take, also it is as anti-male a these German small screen releases by ARD Degeto frequently are and the additional inclusion of Ziegler Filmproduktion makes things only worse. Two minuses do not make a plus this time. Not at all. It rather feels like 200 minuses and if I gave 1 out of 10 rating, then I'd certainly do it here. Highly not recommended!
