This is a two-part television movie starring Maria Bäumer as the central character. If you are interested in German movies, you may also have come across Karl and Hoger too. Almost the entire rest of the cast is British, including an actress from Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" in one of the key roles. First of all, I have to say that I don't think Bäumer is a really gifted actress, but with a terrible script like this one here, there is not much you can do anyway. Yes they had almost three hours to fill, but still they packed in so much here, some war references, lots of love stories, evil moms, some murderer killing randomly young women, another murderer as we find out in the end etc. It's pretty much a joke. Hoger did the right thing by quitting after part 1. This does not mean she played her part well. She does not have that much talent either. Oh and then there also was a fairly cringeworthy scene where she bought some fish and the guy who sold them was just ridiculous.. I'm not really sure if the actor or the script was worse, a mix of both I guess.
This film is all bait, sometimes sexual, sometimes dramatic, all low-quality and fails to elaborate convincingly on any of the far too many issues in these 3 hours. Oh I forgot to mention the central character's failed marriage. Another crucial story they just threw in randomly and didn't really care to work on later on. Apart from that, British names (like in these terrible Emilie Richards movies) are always pathetic in German movies. They try to be somewhat elite and educated, but it's just cringeworthy. At least, most of the actors here were British too. Only thing I can say in their favor. Or when the two had sex in the flat and the other woman was standing outside knocking at the door. And then Bäumer's character quickly changes her opinion about that relationship again. And she said earlier things about the other woman where you would think she would never sleep with her man. Seriously, she seemed so bipolar, but she was not. It's just an example of how not to write characters. The film's director from Switzerland is actually fairly experienced, but not even Scorsese could make this script work I guess. The writer actually worked on "What to do in case of a fire?" before, a fairly known German film, also abroad. Even more surprising with what he came up here. By the way, the movie is based on a Charlotte Link novel. Don't mistake her for the Oscar-winning filmmaker Caroline Link. And finally, the ending was basically when this film hit rock-bottom hadn't it done so already several times before. The woman shooting the man she was so addicted to was the biggest nonsense ever, even if he hurt her a lot with his words. Her screaming "Mein Schatz!" basically already had comedic value, even if it certainly wasn't intended that way. Well.. she looked a bit like Gollum, didn't she? The only positive thing you could sort-of say about this film is that it's rarely predictable, but that's not really a positive thing actually either as almost the entire storyline is so unrealistic in every regard. Not recommended.
This film is all bait, sometimes sexual, sometimes dramatic, all low-quality and fails to elaborate convincingly on any of the far too many issues in these 3 hours. Oh I forgot to mention the central character's failed marriage. Another crucial story they just threw in randomly and didn't really care to work on later on. Apart from that, British names (like in these terrible Emilie Richards movies) are always pathetic in German movies. They try to be somewhat elite and educated, but it's just cringeworthy. At least, most of the actors here were British too. Only thing I can say in their favor. Or when the two had sex in the flat and the other woman was standing outside knocking at the door. And then Bäumer's character quickly changes her opinion about that relationship again. And she said earlier things about the other woman where you would think she would never sleep with her man. Seriously, she seemed so bipolar, but she was not. It's just an example of how not to write characters. The film's director from Switzerland is actually fairly experienced, but not even Scorsese could make this script work I guess. The writer actually worked on "What to do in case of a fire?" before, a fairly known German film, also abroad. Even more surprising with what he came up here. By the way, the movie is based on a Charlotte Link novel. Don't mistake her for the Oscar-winning filmmaker Caroline Link. And finally, the ending was basically when this film hit rock-bottom hadn't it done so already several times before. The woman shooting the man she was so addicted to was the biggest nonsense ever, even if he hurt her a lot with his words. Her screaming "Mein Schatz!" basically already had comedic value, even if it certainly wasn't intended that way. Well.. she looked a bit like Gollum, didn't she? The only positive thing you could sort-of say about this film is that it's rarely predictable, but that's not really a positive thing actually either as almost the entire storyline is so unrealistic in every regard. Not recommended.
