"Opa, ledig, jung", which means literally translated" Grandpa, single, young", is a German television film from 2015, so this one has its fifth anniversary this year. However, the English-language title I just came up with is really fictirious because chances are incredibly low that this film is shown outside of Germany really. Well, apparently it has been shown in fact in Hispanic regions, but no clue why because it is not good at all and one of many, many really weak small screen releases here from my country. The director is Markus Herling and this is an early career effort from the man or, to be more accurate, one of his first works, which is a bit surprising because he was not young at all when he directed this. And since then, it seems as if he tries to make up for lost time and has been really prolific. Seems like an unconventional career. Florian Schumacher, the writer, has a fairly conventional career though. He started at an age where you would expect him to and everything is normal, even if I kinda doubt that somebody who comes up with garbage screenplays like this will ever make it big, but who knows. We shall see. Also these 1.5 hours we have here are apparently the writer's only acting credit and even if his role seems really small, this is never a good sign if they simply cast crew members to fill in, even if it is a role with which you cannot really do much wrong. As for the cast, Steffen Groth is a familiar face for German film buffs and he has been in many films already, sadly the vast majority of those is not good at all. Still i would say he is tolerable here and at least not making the bad script even worse. A good actor, however, he is not. There are more familiar faces here for German film buffs. The most familiar one is probably the fairly attractive Julia Hartmann, who palys the main character's daughter. Golo Euler I think I have come across in other projects as well. But this sounds much better than it actually is because overall the cast is not better than average German television material and that means that, by general standards, you will also not find a great deal of acting talent here. Sure you cans ay that even far more talented actors could not have made those characters and stories work because of how poorly written it all is and you would be correct, but still nobody forced the cast here to appear in this travesty.
I think it would have been a ise choice had they gone full comedy here without taking itself seriously at all. When the film went a bit over the top, it is not bad. Actually, the first scene with the guy in the park with his grandchild and how all the women are looking at him was so absurd that it was funny and a success. When he is visiting potential kindergartens with his daughter, it is also mildly entertaining. However, unfortunately of course they had to deal with bigger issues. Meeting his daughter, granddaughter and also their mother must be a life-changing event for Groth's character. He loses interest in the hot latina sitting at the bar of his hostel literally every time he works there (what's up with that??) because his priorities have changed. Priorities were uncomplicated sex without any responsibilities as we find out in the very first scene. I mean had the film really only been about the story how he takes care of his grandchild, it would have been not as much of a mess as it turned out to be. But the entire artist story is a complete joke to be honest. They really need to make sure the man has actual talent and he finds inspiration again with the family members entering his life. So pseudo important because the writer simply did not even have 10% of the talent to make this idea work. It is pretty ironic how a story about artistry makes painfully obvious that Schumacher himself has no artistic talent whatsoever. And other ideas as well. One thing I find always baffling are random encounters in these movies. Like how he meets his (potential) lover when he is randomly walking around with his daughter. Or how he meets this fella who is the connection to his artistic past also very randomly. Or how it all comes out what he has been doing with the grandchild. Basically using it to be on good terms with the new woman in his life. And how quickly everything resolves at the end again. There is this drama with his former girlfriend being right that he is simply not a good person, but boom immediately afterwards they reunited and everybody gets along well with everybody again. Especially Euler's character (I think it was him) was written in a really poor fashion there, like he is so mad he hits the main character and then at the end they high-five or something? Are we really supposed to believe this. Also the general idea already how Hartmann's character is asking her father whom she has not seen for years to take care of the kid. No friends? No relatives? Nothing? Or the idea that Groth's character is acting so strange at the park. He could have said immediately it is his grandkid and all would have been fine. Instead we see a brief sequence that is really embarrassing and evidence of Groth not being a talented actor, namely when he keeps stuttering and acting weird when his new love interest speaks about his "daughter". Admmittedly, they could have done worse. There is no 100% safety that the two become a couple at the very end although it is somewhat implied. And also he is not getting together again with Hartmann's character's mother, which is good because it would have been really unrealistic looking at how she speaks and thinks about him, but hey the swinging the kid sequence also solves their problems all out of nowhere, no matter how big they may have been. And another okay aspect was that when they took the injured kid to the hospital that it was not the exact hospital where the kid's grandma works. Still, the bad easily prevails. So yeah, I think this is enough. You get the message. Not a good film by any means. Also not utter failure, but still really bad, as bad as the title that sounds like taken from a lonely hearts ad (not sure that is the right term, but you get the meaning) implies. And the cringeworthy poster too. This really aired in a prime time slot back then? Disgusting. I highly recommend to stay far away from this film.
I think it would have been a ise choice had they gone full comedy here without taking itself seriously at all. When the film went a bit over the top, it is not bad. Actually, the first scene with the guy in the park with his grandchild and how all the women are looking at him was so absurd that it was funny and a success. When he is visiting potential kindergartens with his daughter, it is also mildly entertaining. However, unfortunately of course they had to deal with bigger issues. Meeting his daughter, granddaughter and also their mother must be a life-changing event for Groth's character. He loses interest in the hot latina sitting at the bar of his hostel literally every time he works there (what's up with that??) because his priorities have changed. Priorities were uncomplicated sex without any responsibilities as we find out in the very first scene. I mean had the film really only been about the story how he takes care of his grandchild, it would have been not as much of a mess as it turned out to be. But the entire artist story is a complete joke to be honest. They really need to make sure the man has actual talent and he finds inspiration again with the family members entering his life. So pseudo important because the writer simply did not even have 10% of the talent to make this idea work. It is pretty ironic how a story about artistry makes painfully obvious that Schumacher himself has no artistic talent whatsoever. And other ideas as well. One thing I find always baffling are random encounters in these movies. Like how he meets his (potential) lover when he is randomly walking around with his daughter. Or how he meets this fella who is the connection to his artistic past also very randomly. Or how it all comes out what he has been doing with the grandchild. Basically using it to be on good terms with the new woman in his life. And how quickly everything resolves at the end again. There is this drama with his former girlfriend being right that he is simply not a good person, but boom immediately afterwards they reunited and everybody gets along well with everybody again. Especially Euler's character (I think it was him) was written in a really poor fashion there, like he is so mad he hits the main character and then at the end they high-five or something? Are we really supposed to believe this. Also the general idea already how Hartmann's character is asking her father whom she has not seen for years to take care of the kid. No friends? No relatives? Nothing? Or the idea that Groth's character is acting so strange at the park. He could have said immediately it is his grandkid and all would have been fine. Instead we see a brief sequence that is really embarrassing and evidence of Groth not being a talented actor, namely when he keeps stuttering and acting weird when his new love interest speaks about his "daughter". Admmittedly, they could have done worse. There is no 100% safety that the two become a couple at the very end although it is somewhat implied. And also he is not getting together again with Hartmann's character's mother, which is good because it would have been really unrealistic looking at how she speaks and thinks about him, but hey the swinging the kid sequence also solves their problems all out of nowhere, no matter how big they may have been. And another okay aspect was that when they took the injured kid to the hospital that it was not the exact hospital where the kid's grandma works. Still, the bad easily prevails. So yeah, I think this is enough. You get the message. Not a good film by any means. Also not utter failure, but still really bad, as bad as the title that sounds like taken from a lonely hearts ad (not sure that is the right term, but you get the meaning) implies. And the cringeworthy poster too. This really aired in a prime time slot back then? Disgusting. I highly recommend to stay far away from this film.
