"Frauen verstehen" is a German television movie from 2014, so these 1.5 hours (slightly under) had their fifth anniversary last years. As we start with the basiscs as usual, there is not too much to say about director Grünler as ell as writers Mouchot and Solrun. All three of them are still more or less active today, the director apparently the least as of now, and all three of them were pretty established small screen filmmakers back in 2014 already. And all three of them have bodies of work that di not exactly stand for good quality gently-speaking. But let's be obscene here because especially the wwriters deserve it when apparently they were completely not capable of finding each other flaws and mistakes in coming up with a screenplay: Their bodies of work are trash. The only slightly unusual thing here is Icelandic, also started her career in the late 1990s in Iceland, but since then has worked on many German films. Mouchot sounds French, but she has only worked on German projects too. So in order to make clear how much they suck is that in the past they worked on stuff like "Liebe am Fjord", Katie Fforde adaptations, Emilie Richards movies , Tatort and other stuff that has no right to be shown by any television channel that focuses on creativity and quality. So in other words, their works are exactly what you would expect to be shown on ARD and all its smaller channels. Degeto, the pond scum of German television production companies, is of cours ealso involved here. The cast is slightly more known I would say than what you usually see on German television. denta Berger is a really familiar name to German film buffs, although she shouldn't be, and Henry Hübchen has played lead characters in theatrical releases not too long ago and him I like as well as you can see from the title of my review. Roll and Prager are also no nobodies and another actor I like is Ludger Pistor, even if his role is really minor here. Unfortunately. He is always easy to recognize and identify and I mean he has been in Craig Bond movies, so a bit sad to see him in trash like this film.
Okay, now let me mention a few aspects that really resulted in this being a horrible film: Berger turns 80 next year and I found it pretty difficult to believe that her character was married to Hübchen's, even if the latter is only slightly over five years younger, but I always thought he looked younger anyway and no matter how much make-up they put on Berger's face, it jus feels strange. This, however, is not at all the worst aspect because the character's ne love is played by an actor 20(!) years younger than Berger. This even would have been a bit of an issue when it had been the other way around honestly and they would have elaborated on it, in the worst sense that the male should be ashamed to have such a young partner and instead has to return 100% to his female former wife. And beg for forgiveness. But not so here. There is not a single moment when they talk about the age difference. But things get even better. So Berger around the age of 75 back then has a 55-year-old partner and the latter is also a successful doctor of course, who probably could have 35-year-olds if he wanted to. But still he is only crazy for Berger's character. And nonetheless, Berger is not 100% happy and in love with the fact that she has such a toy boy (yoou can call him that), but she starts seeing her ex-husband again and she has feelings for him too and even in the end, it is implied that she will return to him. Of course on the day she is supposed to marry the younger fella. Sigh. What a joke. Hübchen plays the ex-husband and he made the film slightly work sometimes thanks to his versatility, but when he goes all alpha male towards the end with how he tells Berger's character that she does not need one who is kind, but one who leads her, is utterly cringeworthy. So he has his bad scenes too, even if they are mostly so bad because of the script. Just take the very first scene when he is thrown out by his younger lover and there the film really begins on a low note because this scene is an entire mess really that culminates in the negative highlight when she makes him think she may be interested again, but she is not and what she says (the exact word linked to a popular proverb) are so bad that nobody ever would say something like that in this exact situation and yet you could feel how the writers thought they were so smart with this piece of dialogue.
Okay, on the more positive side, the film was tolerable when it as only about Hübchen's character and the gang. Pistor was okay, but even all this fell apart towards the end when the lawyer dude tells us and her soon-(not-)to-be husband that he has loved Senta Berger's character for many many years and never had another partner. That was really tragic in terms of how he never found love because of her, but also in terms of writing because this was also 100% cringe with how they wanted it to be funny. He would never say something like that in such a situation. Never ever. And when you think, things could not go even more south, there is this bridge scene when Hübchen's character literally pushes her into the boat and when the guy in charge of the boat starts going to the other side of the river although she completely says he shall not. Or the fight that is about to happen when the closing credits roll in. Man it was all so bad. In-between, honestly I thought I could give this 2 stars out of 5 really, but the last 20 minutes are just among the worst 20 minutes I have ever seen on television. And I have seen a lot. It really breaks down there. All of it. Of course, there are also other moments before that during which it is a really poor film, for example at the very core that Hübchen's character does not want to agree to a divorce before the year is over. Or when Berger's character talks to the woman and finds out about Hübchen's character moaning her name when he orgasmed and not the name of the one he was sleeping with there. But yeah, indirectly (also the lawyer confession towards the end), they very much made sure that we never forget how much of a desirable, attractive and confident woman Berger's character is. Subtlety really wasn't their strength. This also becomes obvious with the introduction when we see Berger's character and the other woman in the flat and how they talk about what happened or didn't happen to Hübchen's character and him being alive, but not for Berger's character. Oh well, perhaps Hübchen is simply also too big of a star in this film to not get the "girl" in the end, but yeah, it was this moment really when I was 100% sure that there is no way I can give this movie more than 1 star out of 5 and maybe that is already still too much. A travesty, unfunny, unrealistic, uninteresting although they want you to think the opposite is true for all three of them. Don't get fooled by Degeto. Massive thumbs-down here.
Okay, now let me mention a few aspects that really resulted in this being a horrible film: Berger turns 80 next year and I found it pretty difficult to believe that her character was married to Hübchen's, even if the latter is only slightly over five years younger, but I always thought he looked younger anyway and no matter how much make-up they put on Berger's face, it jus feels strange. This, however, is not at all the worst aspect because the character's ne love is played by an actor 20(!) years younger than Berger. This even would have been a bit of an issue when it had been the other way around honestly and they would have elaborated on it, in the worst sense that the male should be ashamed to have such a young partner and instead has to return 100% to his female former wife. And beg for forgiveness. But not so here. There is not a single moment when they talk about the age difference. But things get even better. So Berger around the age of 75 back then has a 55-year-old partner and the latter is also a successful doctor of course, who probably could have 35-year-olds if he wanted to. But still he is only crazy for Berger's character. And nonetheless, Berger is not 100% happy and in love with the fact that she has such a toy boy (yoou can call him that), but she starts seeing her ex-husband again and she has feelings for him too and even in the end, it is implied that she will return to him. Of course on the day she is supposed to marry the younger fella. Sigh. What a joke. Hübchen plays the ex-husband and he made the film slightly work sometimes thanks to his versatility, but when he goes all alpha male towards the end with how he tells Berger's character that she does not need one who is kind, but one who leads her, is utterly cringeworthy. So he has his bad scenes too, even if they are mostly so bad because of the script. Just take the very first scene when he is thrown out by his younger lover and there the film really begins on a low note because this scene is an entire mess really that culminates in the negative highlight when she makes him think she may be interested again, but she is not and what she says (the exact word linked to a popular proverb) are so bad that nobody ever would say something like that in this exact situation and yet you could feel how the writers thought they were so smart with this piece of dialogue.
Okay, on the more positive side, the film was tolerable when it as only about Hübchen's character and the gang. Pistor was okay, but even all this fell apart towards the end when the lawyer dude tells us and her soon-(not-)to-be husband that he has loved Senta Berger's character for many many years and never had another partner. That was really tragic in terms of how he never found love because of her, but also in terms of writing because this was also 100% cringe with how they wanted it to be funny. He would never say something like that in such a situation. Never ever. And when you think, things could not go even more south, there is this bridge scene when Hübchen's character literally pushes her into the boat and when the guy in charge of the boat starts going to the other side of the river although she completely says he shall not. Or the fight that is about to happen when the closing credits roll in. Man it was all so bad. In-between, honestly I thought I could give this 2 stars out of 5 really, but the last 20 minutes are just among the worst 20 minutes I have ever seen on television. And I have seen a lot. It really breaks down there. All of it. Of course, there are also other moments before that during which it is a really poor film, for example at the very core that Hübchen's character does not want to agree to a divorce before the year is over. Or when Berger's character talks to the woman and finds out about Hübchen's character moaning her name when he orgasmed and not the name of the one he was sleeping with there. But yeah, indirectly (also the lawyer confession towards the end), they very much made sure that we never forget how much of a desirable, attractive and confident woman Berger's character is. Subtlety really wasn't their strength. This also becomes obvious with the introduction when we see Berger's character and the other woman in the flat and how they talk about what happened or didn't happen to Hübchen's character and him being alive, but not for Berger's character. Oh well, perhaps Hübchen is simply also too big of a star in this film to not get the "girl" in the end, but yeah, it was this moment really when I was 100% sure that there is no way I can give this movie more than 1 star out of 5 and maybe that is already still too much. A travesty, unfunny, unrealistic, uninteresting although they want you to think the opposite is true for all three of them. Don't get fooled by Degeto. Massive thumbs-down here.
