"Kleine Ziege, sturer Bock" or "Stroppy Cow, Stubborn Ram" is a German German-language movie from 2015, so this one is roughly two years old now and the two descriptions in the title are used for the two protagonists in this 90-minute film. This would be the male central character played by Wotan Wilke Möhring and his daughter played by Sofia Bolotina and I'm positive we will see more from her in the future. There are more known names in this film, at least to me as the the mother is played by the always stunning Julia Koschitz and the male protagonist's father is played by Tile Prückner. But these last two are really not in the center of it all as this is a story of a daughter getting to know her father and the other way around of course too. The kid's mother is really fed up with her shenanigans at some point and allows her to go see her dad for the very first time, the dad who actually even did not know anything about the existence of this girl named Mai. And while early on it seems a bit as if the mother was perhaps the main antagonist this also kinda changes near the end when we have the two parents meet again and she does not seem so evil anymore.
By the way this film is a prime example of how manipulative a film can be. We are not angry at the daughter who is stupid enough to almost drown or the father who almost lets it happen, but at the mother for the most part because how can she not tell the girl who her dad is for such a long time and how can she simply let her go the way she does. Anyway, I already mentioned two scenes, namely the almost drowning scene and also the one where the parents meet at the end that were really weak components of this movie we have here. At least they did not have them get together for happy end's sake as this would have destroyed all the realism, even if they somehow implied it to an extent. And about the water scene, this was just pure drama bait of the worst kind. It felt extremely unrealistic and hurt the movie a lot overall. Another scene would be the first menstruation of the girl that may have served to teach us more about the dad's ability to cope with complicated situations, but it was also a moment that somehow connects these two. Still I felt that it was a bit on the unrealistic side that this is exactly when it would happen.
So yeah, this one here is definitely a bit of a road movie too and it has some solid additions to it. I liked the goat inclusion and it also fits nicely with the names for the two in the title. The Elvis references were fine too, especially the one at the very end. Möhring and Bolotina have decent chemistry and make a subject work that has been done so many times and it needs to be said that this film does not really offer anything new in terms of father and daughter discovering their connection. But Möhring is a good actor which he shows especially when he made that really difficult song scene pull off when he starts singing an Elvis song to lure the goat away from the cliff. He is probably the MVP in here. But it also shows that the movie was really a missed opportunity as a whole. If they had kept going for the quietly convincing style instead of including cheap dramatic references at times, the ones I mentioned earlier, then I'd probably have given it 3 stars out of 5. But as they took this path (also known as the Schweighöfer route), I cannot give it a positive recommendation. Thumbs-down from me despite the ups this one has and I suggest you watch something else instead.
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