"Eine Sennerin zum Verlieben" is a German television film from 2010, so this one has its tenth anniversary this year and actually it happened already because the movie originally aired back in September, so fairly recently. Still given the quality (or lack thereof), this is not a date to be proud of, but instead once again the question needs to be asked why messy movies like this are still shown a decade later on national television, even if it is certainly not the most prestigious spot where it aired today. Somewhere after noon on a smaller channel, but still. Your GEZ money at work. Back to the basics: Of course, this runs for under 1.5 hours as they usually do and of course, this is another ARD Degeto production (the epitome of terrible German television films) in collaboration with Bavaria Film. By the way, the translation here would be "A Sennerin to fall in love with". "Sennerin" is not too easy to translate. You could say it is the female term for a farmer (usually milk farmer that owns cows) who works in the Alps. But there is not one word for "Sennerin" or so. Anyway, initially they just wwanted to go with the title "Die Sennerin", which would have been good because this way they would not have included the cringeworthy romance reference, but on the other hand, it also would have been bad because the film often does not even feel to be at the very center of it all about the title character and that way it almost would have sounded like a biopic, which it certainly is not. It's just trash. Very much expected if you take a look at the body of work by director Dietmar Klein and everything he has worked on in the past, especially in the new millennium. Good news is he has not made any new films in years (according to imdb), but is nonetheless still actively working on German television shows. It's always a bit shocking to see a filmmaker who has now been in the industry for 30 years, back when this film got made for 20 years, but nonetheless seems to have no talent whatsoever. Still good for him I suppose that he got picked to direct projects for such a long time and you cannot really blame him for making a lot of money despite the absence of talent altogether. I think these films pay kinda well, but then again no surprise because there we get the billions of GEZ money in again. The ones really to blame are those who keep casting him as the man in charge of a film. The two writers here are Eva and Horst Kummeth, a pair of writers who are spouses and are even more experienced and prolific than the director as they have been working in scripts since the 1980s already. Same applies to them that experience does not equal talent and they are the greatest example. Horst also acted in many movies over the years by the way. Cannot be a judge of that, but his writing is abysmal from how we see it in this movie. As for the cast, there is not too much to say. The title character is played by Michaela May. Terribly overrated actress with zero versatility and she should not be cast for lead roles, not even for supporting roles. Male co-lead is Halmer and, even if I repeat myself, I must say it's still sad in how many terrible films he has been given the fact that in his younger years he played in some really challennging international projectts with gigantic awards recognition. Alexander Held (not the judge) has a pretty solid amount of screen time too, but the way his character was written was just ridiculous. No actor could have pulled it off. And finally Alexandra Schiffer is easy on the eye, but not a really good actress either, also has almost no material to work with. She is just there in many scenes playing the title character's daughter and in the end she is used to emotionally blackmail another character in the most disgusting manner. I'll get to that later.
Okay, now I would like to elaborate on a few specific scenes and moments where I felt the film sucked the most and why I think it deserves a rating considerably lower than the one it has here on imdb. Here goes. As always with Degeto, realism is a maor issue again, especially in those scenes when they are going for comedy. It feels painfully forced and cringeworthy. Early examples include basically physical harm being caused to Halmer's character on at least two occasions. One would be the scene when he is meeting May's character for the first time. Later on, there is a scene that include Held's character and how he is suspected of being a burglar initially. It's the same as always. The men make fools of themselves in their attempts to impress and be with the oh so desirable male while she is a woman who can get along very well on her own and still somehow in the end ends up with a guy nonetheless. Makes sense. You could see it would be about Halmer's character here very quickly, but of course May's character is so desirable that she is constantly courted by Held's character too and the two were a couple once, but Held's character would return to his wife and not see what an amazing woman May is. Needless to say he is also the mayor of the place, so a really important figure, but yet he constantly has to prove himself to be worthy of May's attention. Sigh. Back to the specific scenes, there is of course the really cringeworthy and unfunny bullfighting sequence with the red tissue or what he has there, red scarf etc. Literally unwatchable. These were minor moments. Of course the pseudo drama is all about people saying they never wanna see each other again, but we know immediately they will end up with each other. And even if May's character is not as much at the center of it all as you could think, she has her moments when she makes inevitably clear she is a terrible actress. Just take the quote near the end, could be the last words in fact, that he is a man and she is a woman. Or the stamp on her leg. So embarrassing. Also story-wise, it is extremely poor at the very core even. The best example is May's character within minutes saying that she will never give uo her farm and not much later she talks to her daughter that it would maybe not be the worst decision if she gave up the farm. Also very likable that she never paid taxes, but hey, it's just because she has so much to do and not because she literally wanted to steal money from anybody. Also pretty ridiculous how the tax people before Halmer's character couldn't care less. And finally, one reference I made earlier already is about the protagonist's daughter's father. Let's be honest here. May has lied for 30 years or so to the man who is the father and also lied to her daughter. And still when finally she comes up with the truth, we are nonetheless supposed to see her as likable and believe all Held's character cares about is his own tax fraud. I don't know what to say. It's absolutely disgusting with what women are getting away in these Degeto films. The man is still the bad guy because he left May's character for his wife back then and hey that totally makes it justifiable that for three decades he does not know he has a daughter despite living next door to her aand seeing her grow up. And rob the daughter off her father. Enough is enough. This film should not be shown anymore. Needless to say the unrealistically rushed happy ending is there too with the financial issues getting solved, Halmer's character realizing May's character is more precious than his job, him being offered a promotion that he reject for romantic reasons etc. It's all messed-up. Huge thumbs-down. Highly not recommended.
Okay, now I would like to elaborate on a few specific scenes and moments where I felt the film sucked the most and why I think it deserves a rating considerably lower than the one it has here on imdb. Here goes. As always with Degeto, realism is a maor issue again, especially in those scenes when they are going for comedy. It feels painfully forced and cringeworthy. Early examples include basically physical harm being caused to Halmer's character on at least two occasions. One would be the scene when he is meeting May's character for the first time. Later on, there is a scene that include Held's character and how he is suspected of being a burglar initially. It's the same as always. The men make fools of themselves in their attempts to impress and be with the oh so desirable male while she is a woman who can get along very well on her own and still somehow in the end ends up with a guy nonetheless. Makes sense. You could see it would be about Halmer's character here very quickly, but of course May's character is so desirable that she is constantly courted by Held's character too and the two were a couple once, but Held's character would return to his wife and not see what an amazing woman May is. Needless to say he is also the mayor of the place, so a really important figure, but yet he constantly has to prove himself to be worthy of May's attention. Sigh. Back to the specific scenes, there is of course the really cringeworthy and unfunny bullfighting sequence with the red tissue or what he has there, red scarf etc. Literally unwatchable. These were minor moments. Of course the pseudo drama is all about people saying they never wanna see each other again, but we know immediately they will end up with each other. And even if May's character is not as much at the center of it all as you could think, she has her moments when she makes inevitably clear she is a terrible actress. Just take the quote near the end, could be the last words in fact, that he is a man and she is a woman. Or the stamp on her leg. So embarrassing. Also story-wise, it is extremely poor at the very core even. The best example is May's character within minutes saying that she will never give uo her farm and not much later she talks to her daughter that it would maybe not be the worst decision if she gave up the farm. Also very likable that she never paid taxes, but hey, it's just because she has so much to do and not because she literally wanted to steal money from anybody. Also pretty ridiculous how the tax people before Halmer's character couldn't care less. And finally, one reference I made earlier already is about the protagonist's daughter's father. Let's be honest here. May has lied for 30 years or so to the man who is the father and also lied to her daughter. And still when finally she comes up with the truth, we are nonetheless supposed to see her as likable and believe all Held's character cares about is his own tax fraud. I don't know what to say. It's absolutely disgusting with what women are getting away in these Degeto films. The man is still the bad guy because he left May's character for his wife back then and hey that totally makes it justifiable that for three decades he does not know he has a daughter despite living next door to her aand seeing her grow up. And rob the daughter off her father. Enough is enough. This film should not be shown anymore. Needless to say the unrealistically rushed happy ending is there too with the financial issues getting solved, Halmer's character realizing May's character is more precious than his job, him being offered a promotion that he reject for romantic reasons etc. It's all messed-up. Huge thumbs-down. Highly not recommended.
