User Reviews

"Mein Blind Date mit dem Leben" is a German 110-minute movie from 2017, so the day I am writing this review it is still a release from this year, a pretty new and fresh film. It is the newest effort by prolific filmmaker Marc Rothemund and having seen some of his stuff, there is some good and some bad I would say, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But it all turned out well. This may have to do with the fact that the central character here Saliya Kahawatte is based on an actually living person and that one also worked closely with the makers of this film it seems. Good choice. I am not a fan of lead actor Kostja Ullmann at all though. I have seen movies where he is genuinely terrible, but here he was a smart casting decision I guess. he still isn't doing anything special at all I would say, but he also does nothing bad, so it is all good. One criticism I have though is that there are really many talented actors in here (Ramadan, Pistor, Mühe, Farooq, von Bülow) and that several of these were somewhat wasted as their characters were there and had conversations with the protagonist, but really had nothing too impressive to offer and could have been left out of the film entirely. But that's also almost my only problem. Another would be that the sex references (the sex scene and the talk towards the end) are not working at all, but I (don't) understand that every German comedy these days needs to have these for whatever reason.

The positive luckily is still much more frequent than the negative here. The general idea and plot may be pretty absurd, but eventually the film is all about making the impossible possible as we see a man who is almost blind managing to become a certificate that allows him to work in a hotel thanks to his drive and dedication. Yes the end is a bit too much on the happy side with him even turning down the offer of the man who was the main antagonist for a long time and becoming his own boss and the love interest showing up out of nowhere and obviously becoming his girlfriend, but I can look beyond that because the movie was really entertaining, smart and significant in a way I hoped for, but did not expect. Ullmann did a good job just like everybody else. Matschenz is in it from the very beginning for the lighter parts and comedy entertainment really and he is working the script well too, maybe gave the best performance in the entire thing. As a whole, this film certainly deserves a thumbs-up and that's what it gets. There are some great moments even and these are evened out by some weak moments Ik mentioned earlier that overall we have a rock-solid outcome. Now Germany has a successful film too about a lobby boy. Go see it.

"Mein Blind Date mit dem Leben" tells the true story of a young man dreaming to work in a big hotel when a rare disease makes him lose his eyesight and gets him nearly blind. Frustrated by the reactions he receives, he decides to hide his disease from a very high-classed hotel and from then on tries his best to pass all exams despite the fact he can't see anything.

Just from the actors and the rather cheesy title I would have guessed that this could be one of those German cinematic releases that are full of bad jokes and cliches. However, I was proven wrong. Of course you do see some of the aspects that German cinema is infamous for but all in all I started to really like this film. It tells a tremendous story, based on true events and the acting was actually very convincing. I can easily imagine that the film might be exaggerating a bit at times, but anyway this man's story is worth being told to larger audiences.

All in all I can really recommend this movie. It is not a gamechanger but a production carried out with much love and joy for the film itself.

Good movie, except the ending. I expected some wrap up of the story and a hint of what happened later in his life, but it just ended. Other than that it is a motivating and even unbelievable story. It is unbelievable that no one noticed that he was blind. Pursue your goals no matter what and you will succeed.