"Ein Geschenk der Götter" is Oliver Haffner's second feature film as writer and director four years after the first. If you have seen "Mein Leben im Off", you will find some of the actors that are also featured in this movie, most of all Katharina Marie Schubert, who plays the lead character here. Adam Bousdoukos you may have seen in Faith Akin's "Soul kitchen before. Then there is a fairly large supporting cast, some of whom worked with Haffner before. Basically we get to find out one or two snippets about each of the smaller character and why they are the way they are. That was a good decision as they are in for almost the whole film, all of them, and so we know a bit more about them.
It is a decent comedy. Here and there were scenes that had me laugh, like the employment agency guy and how he says that they only got one theater in town very early in the film and how he is glad when his colleague takes over. A nice performance by her by the way too. You could see how she was still so ambitious in contrast to her colleagues and also how she maybe dreamed of being involved with the world of movies/plays too. Eva Löbau really managed to put that enthusiasm on the screen and I almost felt a bit sorry for her when Schubert's character asks her to leave. The only thing I did not like was when the characters used quotations from famous plays that were somehow to fit the current situation. It did feel a bit pretentious. One particularly bad example was near the end the scene with the mother of the two girls when Schubert's character is about to give up her work. The reference about breasts being responsible for getting roles was not my cup of tea either. Most of the scenes with her best friend were not that great honestly. I wonder why she did not tell her best friend that she met the play director guy and things did not go so well if they are seemingly so close.
Other than these minor criticisms, it is a pretty good film however. Solid lead performance by Schubert who was also in one of my absolute favorite films from Germany, Ralf Westhoff's "Shoppen" about a decade ago. I also liked that it did not offer a great solution to her unemployment (or to Bousdoukos' character's restaurant plans) or a cheesy ending with Bousdoukos' character. The ending was really very well done. The final scene the two had was pretty perfect.
It is a decent comedy. Here and there were scenes that had me laugh, like the employment agency guy and how he says that they only got one theater in town very early in the film and how he is glad when his colleague takes over. A nice performance by her by the way too. You could see how she was still so ambitious in contrast to her colleagues and also how she maybe dreamed of being involved with the world of movies/plays too. Eva Löbau really managed to put that enthusiasm on the screen and I almost felt a bit sorry for her when Schubert's character asks her to leave. The only thing I did not like was when the characters used quotations from famous plays that were somehow to fit the current situation. It did feel a bit pretentious. One particularly bad example was near the end the scene with the mother of the two girls when Schubert's character is about to give up her work. The reference about breasts being responsible for getting roles was not my cup of tea either. Most of the scenes with her best friend were not that great honestly. I wonder why she did not tell her best friend that she met the play director guy and things did not go so well if they are seemingly so close.
Other than these minor criticisms, it is a pretty good film however. Solid lead performance by Schubert who was also in one of my absolute favorite films from Germany, Ralf Westhoff's "Shoppen" about a decade ago. I also liked that it did not offer a great solution to her unemployment (or to Bousdoukos' character's restaurant plans) or a cheesy ending with Bousdoukos' character. The ending was really very well done. The final scene the two had was pretty perfect.
