"Unser Traum von Kanada" is a German television miniseries that consists of two parts, so the entire thing runs for pretty much exactly three hours, minimally under. You can easily watch this in one sitting, but you shouldn't as you can see from the title of my review. Later on, I will elaborate why. Now let's stick the basics. This premiered back in 2016, actually also in January, so it already had its fifth anniversary and maybe this was the reason, the occasion, why they showed both episodes now once more. Director ad writer are the two Michaels. Michael Wenning, the director, was 50 back then and his body of work is pretty considerable, but if you take a closer look, you will see that it is really all about the quantity there and not one bit about the quality and this is definitely not only because of the SOKO inclusions. Many projects there that really do not include a great deal of quality and that is really the nicest way to put it. The writer is Michael Hantenberg, five years older than his director, so he turns 60 this year. His filmography is slightly better I'd say, not much though and honestly the bar is not exactly set very high. Not much else to say about those two. Even major German film buffs will probably not remember their names, but then again, they have mostly worked on series and not movies. What we have here can probably be called a movie, even if it consists of two episodes, but yeah judging from the quality we got here, it is probably safe to say that it is a good thing that the two Christians did not work on many other films. As for the cast, there are some familiar faces. Michael Gwisdek can be mentioned and he is only in the first episode because his character dies at the end of this first episode. A bit bittersweet you can say because the actor himself died after a short illness not too long ago and this is exactly what his character here is struggling with as well. But i do not (yet) want to get into the story in detail now. Sonja Gerhardt is probably the most known female actor in this movie. I personally think she is pretty overrated (just like Gwisdek, who played the same character in every movie), so I don't think it is a good thing if she gets cast for a key character. Katja Weitzenböck may also be familiar to some. She has been in many films really, frequently playing central characters, but I see nothing in her. This also applies to this project we have here. She is just there, but no range or versatility in here. The good thing you can say is that at least she just doesn't go full ham. Her performance feels really lackluster as if she wasn't even trying. The only interesting thing to her is that she was born in Japan. I have seen her in quite a few films and she is never good. Back to the males, Sönke Möhring (Wotan Wilke's brother) takes over from Gwisdek in the second 1.5 hours. I generally do not dislike him. I mean he has been in some really good films, even if his roles were minor, but here he also did not do a lot for me I must admit. That's pretty much it about the cast. Four familiar German actors and the rest I do not know. Many of them are actually English native-speakers as you can see from the sound of the names on the cast list here on imdb. You could also see it during the film. My oh my, been a while since I saw such terrible dubbing honestly. Cringeworthy stuff. As for the title, it means "Our Dream of Canada", but as you can see from the title of my review, this felt much more like a nightmare watch. In the next paragraph, I shall tell you why.
It already starts with Gwisdek in the first movie. I will admit that I kinda like his son, but the old man had such little range honestly that it is embarrassing. He always is a bit gruff, Berliner Schnauze as we say, and here we see him take it like a man when he finds out and we find out that he has terminal cancer. So what does he do? make sure everything is in order as much as he can. This involves telling Gerhardt's character about her real father and that he is still alive and who he is. First of all, the young woman is heartbroken when she finds out about the cancer, then she is mad at grandpa because he did not tell her earlier about the father, but in the end they bond again of course. There is this scene with them sitting at the campfire and Gwisdek's character is telling anecdotes and Gerhardt's was laughing at them. So typical Gwisdek and I don't mean that in a good way at all. He was so overhyped. He is also no lead actor material. But the first half also had major flaws in terms of realism. Like we have the young woman I was just talking about being mad ad her dad and speaking as if she never wants to see him again because he did not show up earlier to see her, but of course in the end they still sit together there and talk and bond. Even with a sequel looking, there must be a happy end for those who never watch the second part. Bavaria Fiction as bad as always. The part with the band also felt fairly uninspired. Same applies to the scenes with Gerhardt's character and her boyfriend and their plans and also eventually the death of Gwisdek's character on the boat which was supposed to be an emotional highlight (in terms of sadness), but it felt as bland and uninspired as everything else. Also not too realistic. Overall, you could say that, also with the exaggerated soundtrack trying to deliver emotions where the actors and script couldn't, this definitely had a touch of Rosamunde Pilcher to it. or Katie Fforde. Or Inga Lindström. There really are enough, even if officially it is not linked to any of those, but certainly nothing to be proud of at all. The first half gets the lowest rating possible from me, namely 1 out of 5, and so does the second half, although it sucks for different reasons. First of all, it hardly felt as if it belonged to the first film. Sure, some characters returned, but they so randomly included many new characters that I sometimes had the impression I was watching something entirely different and not a sequel or a second half. You could say that this could be considered a good thing looking at how poor the first half was, but actually it wasn't. It just sucked for different reasons. And the parts they actually continued were those that were already super boring in the first half like the relationship between Gerhardt's character and her partner that I mentioned earlier already. But for example the long sequence with Möhring's character and the boy was so bland and uninteresting. And this was supposed to be seen as a touching story where father and son get close(r). I don't even. The pseudo drama was also cringeworthy. While Gwisdek's character's demise in the first film was really more than enough, they included smaller tragedy more frequently here. Take the overdose for one character. Take another character hurting his leg really badly. Take the bear attack. Take the last-minute helicopter rescue. It was just ridiculously fake and staged everything. The epitome of drama for the sake of it. So unwatchable. Oh and in this half, Weitzenböck also has her embarrassing moments finally, like when she flirts with another character, especially when on one occasion she says something like it's not her business. Cringe is real. And Gerhardt's character in the end ditches the guy because she is such an independent young woman who can get along on her own and doesn't need a man to make her dreams happen. Oh and one really safe indicator about how good these films are (or how bad) is usually the way the kids dialogues feel like and as we have many scenes here with a child and a grown-up in the wilderness, this is especially vital here. You are probably not too surprised when I tell you they also really messed up there. I mean this was the biggest challenge and they failed on the easy challenges, so very much expected. But the worst of it all was really how this entire thing dared to take itself so seriously from beginning to end as if it was really a defining character study. I mean Canada is great and they even managed to make the nature scenes look poor in here. Takes a special lack of talent for that, doesn't it. As for the taking seriously part, just take one of the last lines from the film about happiness. I cringed, not gonna lie. Of course, in the end, the two lovebirds are united. Sure thing that the young woman's father is about to start something with the grandfather's close friend. Romance has to happen here. But what really surprised me was in the very end the other woman showing up with her words that she is pregnant. Not enough pseudo drama yet huh? That was so random. I mean the actress was terrible all along with her jealousy (and I am not saying this in a way where I'd say the filmmakers succeeded in their utterly shallow attempts to depict her as unlikable as possible), but the dubbing with her was especially bad. There they clearly did not care one bit about synchrony. Or is synchronicity the word? Anyway, you know what I mean. Her inclusion in earlier scenes was already terrible to watch, but the cliffhanger ending was really another negative height they reached. What was this supposed to tell us? That they planned another 1.5 hours to follow up that luckily never happened? That the man now cares for the new child he has over the one he is about to father. I don't know. I don't even really wanna think about it now. It was just messed up. Everything about these under three hours felt that way. I hope I can forget about it as soon as possible. Highly not recommended.
It already starts with Gwisdek in the first movie. I will admit that I kinda like his son, but the old man had such little range honestly that it is embarrassing. He always is a bit gruff, Berliner Schnauze as we say, and here we see him take it like a man when he finds out and we find out that he has terminal cancer. So what does he do? make sure everything is in order as much as he can. This involves telling Gerhardt's character about her real father and that he is still alive and who he is. First of all, the young woman is heartbroken when she finds out about the cancer, then she is mad at grandpa because he did not tell her earlier about the father, but in the end they bond again of course. There is this scene with them sitting at the campfire and Gwisdek's character is telling anecdotes and Gerhardt's was laughing at them. So typical Gwisdek and I don't mean that in a good way at all. He was so overhyped. He is also no lead actor material. But the first half also had major flaws in terms of realism. Like we have the young woman I was just talking about being mad ad her dad and speaking as if she never wants to see him again because he did not show up earlier to see her, but of course in the end they still sit together there and talk and bond. Even with a sequel looking, there must be a happy end for those who never watch the second part. Bavaria Fiction as bad as always. The part with the band also felt fairly uninspired. Same applies to the scenes with Gerhardt's character and her boyfriend and their plans and also eventually the death of Gwisdek's character on the boat which was supposed to be an emotional highlight (in terms of sadness), but it felt as bland and uninspired as everything else. Also not too realistic. Overall, you could say that, also with the exaggerated soundtrack trying to deliver emotions where the actors and script couldn't, this definitely had a touch of Rosamunde Pilcher to it. or Katie Fforde. Or Inga Lindström. There really are enough, even if officially it is not linked to any of those, but certainly nothing to be proud of at all. The first half gets the lowest rating possible from me, namely 1 out of 5, and so does the second half, although it sucks for different reasons. First of all, it hardly felt as if it belonged to the first film. Sure, some characters returned, but they so randomly included many new characters that I sometimes had the impression I was watching something entirely different and not a sequel or a second half. You could say that this could be considered a good thing looking at how poor the first half was, but actually it wasn't. It just sucked for different reasons. And the parts they actually continued were those that were already super boring in the first half like the relationship between Gerhardt's character and her partner that I mentioned earlier already. But for example the long sequence with Möhring's character and the boy was so bland and uninteresting. And this was supposed to be seen as a touching story where father and son get close(r). I don't even. The pseudo drama was also cringeworthy. While Gwisdek's character's demise in the first film was really more than enough, they included smaller tragedy more frequently here. Take the overdose for one character. Take another character hurting his leg really badly. Take the bear attack. Take the last-minute helicopter rescue. It was just ridiculously fake and staged everything. The epitome of drama for the sake of it. So unwatchable. Oh and in this half, Weitzenböck also has her embarrassing moments finally, like when she flirts with another character, especially when on one occasion she says something like it's not her business. Cringe is real. And Gerhardt's character in the end ditches the guy because she is such an independent young woman who can get along on her own and doesn't need a man to make her dreams happen. Oh and one really safe indicator about how good these films are (or how bad) is usually the way the kids dialogues feel like and as we have many scenes here with a child and a grown-up in the wilderness, this is especially vital here. You are probably not too surprised when I tell you they also really messed up there. I mean this was the biggest challenge and they failed on the easy challenges, so very much expected. But the worst of it all was really how this entire thing dared to take itself so seriously from beginning to end as if it was really a defining character study. I mean Canada is great and they even managed to make the nature scenes look poor in here. Takes a special lack of talent for that, doesn't it. As for the taking seriously part, just take one of the last lines from the film about happiness. I cringed, not gonna lie. Of course, in the end, the two lovebirds are united. Sure thing that the young woman's father is about to start something with the grandfather's close friend. Romance has to happen here. But what really surprised me was in the very end the other woman showing up with her words that she is pregnant. Not enough pseudo drama yet huh? That was so random. I mean the actress was terrible all along with her jealousy (and I am not saying this in a way where I'd say the filmmakers succeeded in their utterly shallow attempts to depict her as unlikable as possible), but the dubbing with her was especially bad. There they clearly did not care one bit about synchrony. Or is synchronicity the word? Anyway, you know what I mean. Her inclusion in earlier scenes was already terrible to watch, but the cliffhanger ending was really another negative height they reached. What was this supposed to tell us? That they planned another 1.5 hours to follow up that luckily never happened? That the man now cares for the new child he has over the one he is about to father. I don't know. I don't even really wanna think about it now. It was just messed up. Everything about these under three hours felt that way. I hope I can forget about it as soon as possible. Highly not recommended.