"Familie inklusive" (I don't think I have to explain to anybody what this title means) is a German television film from 2013 originally, so it is just under 2.5 years now for this to have its 10th anniversary. We have three writers here, which is certainly a bit on the unusual side even for these ARD releases. I spare you the names. You know where to find them. Often they got two, but a trio is an exception. Still you can say that definitely none of the three managed to elevate the screenplay here to a decent level. Not particularly surprising though if you take a look at everything else they worked on. The most known mentions are Verbotene Liebe, In aller Freundschhaft, several SOKO series, Alarm für Cobra 11 and others. For two of them, writing screenplays for films and not for episodes was a bit unusual. The third, however, worked only on movies. She is also no longer with us, but died under two years ago when she was not even 60. Tragic really and I know one shall not speak disrespectfully about the dead and I hope she rests in peace, but this tragedy does not make her body of work any more watchable. It is as poor a the ones from the other two writers. Kinda ironic though for which prject she received her only bit of awards attention. The director is Christine Kabisch, pretty prolific and experienced as she started in the 1980s already. She was 60 when this film got made, so getting close to 70 now and she still seems to be working. But if you are stuck with Rote Rosen at that age and also have virtually nothing creative in your body of work from the years, no decades, before that, then it is 100% clear that this filmmaker is a serious case of quantity over quality altogether. So the making here would have been doomed as well from the start without ARD Degeto being once more in charge, but this is really just the negative icing on this really foul cake.
As for the cast, one name comes to mind especially and that is Uschi Glas of course with how long she has been in the industry and it is no surprise that she plays a key character here. The biggest character in fact, even if she is not in this film from the very start, but instead we meet the people that she is about to meet as well. Lets stay with the basic though for now. This is not a super old movie and I have come across German television films from the very beginning of the new millennium that had three of four pretty familiar faces in here. I am not saying the cast members here are not established or anything (on the contrary, the older ones are), but there are really no remotely big names in here except Glas and if you can still call her that is also highly debatable. Her recent works next to Speidel and Elsner as well as her inclusions in these blockbuster theatrical releases next to Elyas M'Barek are nothing one could be really proud of. She is definitely nnot some grande dame of German films. Then again, if the likes of Speidel and Berben and, to a lesser extent, Elsner are considered something like that, then it is nothing you'd wanna be anyway. Giggenbach seems slightly familiar, but his role here is minimal and he is the closest the film may have to a villain, but it's all kept harmless as usual with these Degeto films. Nothing to say about König, Keller or Hösl really. Leslie-Vanessa Lill is on the cute side, but in terms of acting, I am not impressed either. Then again, her character was written as poorly as all the others here and not even the most talented actors could have made this script work. Then again, nobody forced them to accept to appear in this one, so no mercy on the cast members either. They were taking our GEZ money and delivering nothing in exchange. Back to Lill, seems she is also not getting beyond stuff like "In aller Freundschaft" quality-wise, so yeah kinda fitting really overall. Good for her she is still active and seems to manage a transition into the world of grown-up actors or already has, but this does not mean her stuff is any good. or anybody else's from this film.
Now let me a be a bit more specific about this movie we got here: It runs the usual under 1.5 hours with Degeto and for all I care, it could have been shorter really Yes, it was this poor. Uninspired and generic from beginning to end. Glas' character is depicted in a way that female characters in these films always are. They are queens and must be adored by their men and treated like princesses, so they get a chance for these women to give in to the wooing eventually. That the women also throw away randomly the guys' clothes and tell them how ugly they find them (the clothes) is nothing that matters. The woman are still the goddesses. The most ridiculous thing is also that the guys have to apologize the next day for not taking it quietly, the disrespectful acts from these women. There are more examples like these. I personally would have wished the guy to stay single and not with the woman, but of course with Degeto you always get unrealistically fake happy endings. The premise also deteriorates quickly here. We have an elderly woman (Glas) going to see her significant other and they want to spend some time together. But things quickly become a challenge when they end up in charge of three children because the mother all of a sudden has to head abroad, to another continent in fact, because her man had an accident there or something. Sure thing. Happens to all of us. Honestly, without the irony, this could not have been any more of a moment for the sake of it to get Glas' character in the position to deal with the children and their issues. Her partner is still around, but has no screen time at all either and he is basically only there to talk to Glas' character when she complains about how she cannot deal with the situation. Sure thing. But makes sense, None of the other cast members are half as famous as Glas, so she is where the money went and the others also don#t get a lot of screen time while she is in it from beginning to end. Basically in every scene. If you have seen some of her other recent stuff, that is not a good thing at all. She has been in many projects as bad as this one here lately.
What's up with the kids? Well, let's start with the smallest one and that would be a boy who dreams of being a professional football player and thinks he has the talent and dedication. There is not too much to his story. Glas' character manages the super challenging act to get him to bed and make sure he sleeps despite all his energy and is immediately praised by her partner for this gigantic challenge. I maean credit where credit is due. She is a goddess. I said it before, but cannot be said often enough. Also the scene with the football match was pretty cringeworthy. Of course, Glas' character is there to film the match and of course the kid gets to shoot a penalty (after being foulded himself too obviously) and and the penalty is of course a success and a really strong shot and Glas's character gets the ball right into her face. No sympathy there. Only for the audience who have to watch this mess, who have to watch Glas' character when she recognizes a foul and when she has no clue what is going on before the penalty. As for the other kids, the girl (Lill) is experiencing love for the first time and Glas' character has to show up as an understanding (grand)mother there too in this complicated world of teenage hormones. Because mother is not around, still abroad spontaneously. And as for the oldest kid, a boy who has zero motivation to go to school, she also fights to be accepted by him by praising his talents as a graffiti artist you could say. The meeting with the guy working there who forced them to clean the entire thing was ridiculously bad honestly how she takes sides with the boy there. And also this was maybe the most unrealistic moment of the entire film and that means quite something. Did they honestly think it feels realistic that the boy came up with this gigantic painting all at once within such a short time. Or of course how he had been caught in similar situations repeatedly before. Three times during last week or something yeah right. But while trying to make friends with the boy, she is still dedicated and tries all she can to convince him to stay in school. The moments there when we see his face and hoe he slowly accepts here were especially unwatchable.
Okay, this is pretty much it. I think I have made my point sufficiently why this was a horrible watch in terms of both acting and writing. The latter most of all. I really struggle hard to come up with something positive here. The soundtrack may not have been as bad as on other occasions with Degeto, but that does not mean it was good or anything, just maybe not as horrible as most other production values here and in other Degeto films, but still bad by general standards. Every time the film tried to become a little bit dramatic, the shortcomings in terms of the filmmakers' talents (or absence thereof) became painfully visible. This also applies to the hotel tester part or other lighter moments where they tried to make the audience smile. It all feels artificial and try-hard. Nothing natural at all here. The predictability is also not helping. After the protagonist's partner is out for quite some time, he returns in the last half hour for the usual pseudo drama that the two may be about to break up. There is no satisfying reason there and the blame is as always on the guy of course. Degeto as anti-male as usual. But this is fixed like everything else eventually. Oh yes, there is something good to this film, namely that they did not turn it into a series or that they made a sequel or something the way it has happened with other Glas films from the new millennium. Dedicated thumbs-down for the outcome here. A terrible watch indeed and the only accurate approach here is to skip this 100% and pretty shameful it's still shown on national television in 2021 and will be for years to come.
As for the cast, one name comes to mind especially and that is Uschi Glas of course with how long she has been in the industry and it is no surprise that she plays a key character here. The biggest character in fact, even if she is not in this film from the very start, but instead we meet the people that she is about to meet as well. Lets stay with the basic though for now. This is not a super old movie and I have come across German television films from the very beginning of the new millennium that had three of four pretty familiar faces in here. I am not saying the cast members here are not established or anything (on the contrary, the older ones are), but there are really no remotely big names in here except Glas and if you can still call her that is also highly debatable. Her recent works next to Speidel and Elsner as well as her inclusions in these blockbuster theatrical releases next to Elyas M'Barek are nothing one could be really proud of. She is definitely nnot some grande dame of German films. Then again, if the likes of Speidel and Berben and, to a lesser extent, Elsner are considered something like that, then it is nothing you'd wanna be anyway. Giggenbach seems slightly familiar, but his role here is minimal and he is the closest the film may have to a villain, but it's all kept harmless as usual with these Degeto films. Nothing to say about König, Keller or Hösl really. Leslie-Vanessa Lill is on the cute side, but in terms of acting, I am not impressed either. Then again, her character was written as poorly as all the others here and not even the most talented actors could have made this script work. Then again, nobody forced them to accept to appear in this one, so no mercy on the cast members either. They were taking our GEZ money and delivering nothing in exchange. Back to Lill, seems she is also not getting beyond stuff like "In aller Freundschaft" quality-wise, so yeah kinda fitting really overall. Good for her she is still active and seems to manage a transition into the world of grown-up actors or already has, but this does not mean her stuff is any good. or anybody else's from this film.
Now let me a be a bit more specific about this movie we got here: It runs the usual under 1.5 hours with Degeto and for all I care, it could have been shorter really Yes, it was this poor. Uninspired and generic from beginning to end. Glas' character is depicted in a way that female characters in these films always are. They are queens and must be adored by their men and treated like princesses, so they get a chance for these women to give in to the wooing eventually. That the women also throw away randomly the guys' clothes and tell them how ugly they find them (the clothes) is nothing that matters. The woman are still the goddesses. The most ridiculous thing is also that the guys have to apologize the next day for not taking it quietly, the disrespectful acts from these women. There are more examples like these. I personally would have wished the guy to stay single and not with the woman, but of course with Degeto you always get unrealistically fake happy endings. The premise also deteriorates quickly here. We have an elderly woman (Glas) going to see her significant other and they want to spend some time together. But things quickly become a challenge when they end up in charge of three children because the mother all of a sudden has to head abroad, to another continent in fact, because her man had an accident there or something. Sure thing. Happens to all of us. Honestly, without the irony, this could not have been any more of a moment for the sake of it to get Glas' character in the position to deal with the children and their issues. Her partner is still around, but has no screen time at all either and he is basically only there to talk to Glas' character when she complains about how she cannot deal with the situation. Sure thing. But makes sense, None of the other cast members are half as famous as Glas, so she is where the money went and the others also don#t get a lot of screen time while she is in it from beginning to end. Basically in every scene. If you have seen some of her other recent stuff, that is not a good thing at all. She has been in many projects as bad as this one here lately.
What's up with the kids? Well, let's start with the smallest one and that would be a boy who dreams of being a professional football player and thinks he has the talent and dedication. There is not too much to his story. Glas' character manages the super challenging act to get him to bed and make sure he sleeps despite all his energy and is immediately praised by her partner for this gigantic challenge. I maean credit where credit is due. She is a goddess. I said it before, but cannot be said often enough. Also the scene with the football match was pretty cringeworthy. Of course, Glas' character is there to film the match and of course the kid gets to shoot a penalty (after being foulded himself too obviously) and and the penalty is of course a success and a really strong shot and Glas's character gets the ball right into her face. No sympathy there. Only for the audience who have to watch this mess, who have to watch Glas' character when she recognizes a foul and when she has no clue what is going on before the penalty. As for the other kids, the girl (Lill) is experiencing love for the first time and Glas' character has to show up as an understanding (grand)mother there too in this complicated world of teenage hormones. Because mother is not around, still abroad spontaneously. And as for the oldest kid, a boy who has zero motivation to go to school, she also fights to be accepted by him by praising his talents as a graffiti artist you could say. The meeting with the guy working there who forced them to clean the entire thing was ridiculously bad honestly how she takes sides with the boy there. And also this was maybe the most unrealistic moment of the entire film and that means quite something. Did they honestly think it feels realistic that the boy came up with this gigantic painting all at once within such a short time. Or of course how he had been caught in similar situations repeatedly before. Three times during last week or something yeah right. But while trying to make friends with the boy, she is still dedicated and tries all she can to convince him to stay in school. The moments there when we see his face and hoe he slowly accepts here were especially unwatchable.
Okay, this is pretty much it. I think I have made my point sufficiently why this was a horrible watch in terms of both acting and writing. The latter most of all. I really struggle hard to come up with something positive here. The soundtrack may not have been as bad as on other occasions with Degeto, but that does not mean it was good or anything, just maybe not as horrible as most other production values here and in other Degeto films, but still bad by general standards. Every time the film tried to become a little bit dramatic, the shortcomings in terms of the filmmakers' talents (or absence thereof) became painfully visible. This also applies to the hotel tester part or other lighter moments where they tried to make the audience smile. It all feels artificial and try-hard. Nothing natural at all here. The predictability is also not helping. After the protagonist's partner is out for quite some time, he returns in the last half hour for the usual pseudo drama that the two may be about to break up. There is no satisfying reason there and the blame is as always on the guy of course. Degeto as anti-male as usual. But this is fixed like everything else eventually. Oh yes, there is something good to this film, namely that they did not turn it into a series or that they made a sequel or something the way it has happened with other Glas films from the new millennium. Dedicated thumbs-down for the outcome here. A terrible watch indeed and the only accurate approach here is to skip this 100% and pretty shameful it's still shown on national television in 2021 and will be for years to come.
