If you are German, you understand this title, this little play on words. If you are not and really really want to, then feel free to contact me. Okay, let's go: "Immer Ärger mit Opa Charly", which means "Always trouble with grandpa Charly", is a German television film from 2016, so this one will have its fifth anniversary soon. These almost 90 minutes are also known as "Jana traut sich nicht" and "Mein liebes Leben". The director is Marcus Ulbricht and the writer is Nicole Walter-Lingen. The fact that they have worked on ARD daily soap operas "Verbotene Liebe" and "Marienhof" is telling enough about the quality you can expect here. The fact that they are both really prolific, also were back in 2016 when they made this movie means nothing. The epitome of quantity over quality. Admittedly Ulbricht's body of work is not as bad as NWL's that includes so many garbage projects like Utta Danella, Rosamunde Pilcher and Lilly Schönauer adaptations that I honestly want to throw up. With her in charge, this one here was doomed from the beginning and not even the best director can turn a script like this into good quality. And neither can a pretty limited director like Ulbricht. The cast is adding their fair share too. Lead actress Inka Friedrich is plain horrible from beginning to end, which is especially painful because she is in almost every scene. Her male co-lead Tobias Oertel is only slightly better, which means still pretty horrible. Nadeshda Brennicke luckily only has a few scenes, but I was shocked how bad she was and where her career has gone, namely exactly deep down the toilet. She does basically do nothing in this film except sit on the female protagonist's office table and make implications about how she is crushing on Oertel's character while at the same time incredibly going over the top with her voice and facial acting especially. Looking at how she was once considered a pretty fine actress, her turn here is really an insult to everybody in the audience. But I guess they had to get a best friend character in somewhere. And finally, the one who plays Charly, the title character, is Ulrich Pleitgen. He is not particularly good either, but probably not as bad as most of the others. It is fairly sad that this was his final movie and that he went out (of work and life) on the lowest note imaginable because he had been a very established actor for decades. It's almost a favor to him that he was only seen frequently in this film early on, but the longer it went the more he disappeared. He is allso never as much of a key character as you could think he is from the title.
So much for the cast. There's others like the young actress who plays the protagonist's daughter, but I won't give any mentions to them. They are as bad as the rest of this film. I will not elaborate a lot on the plot now, but instead give you several reasons, moments and scenes which made it very easy for me to decide this film is utter failure. It isn't even a close call. I already mentioned how Friedrich butchered the already bad material even further and it sure took a special (lack of) talent to make the abysmal script appear even worse. This starts right at the beginning with the illegal activity scene between the title character and his granddaughter and the level stayed this low immediately afterwards at the police station, especially when the old mans aid what he was actually holding in his hand. I mean this film failed from many perspectives, but it never failed as hard as it did in terms of the comedic approach. The consequence of the opening is that they are looking for a new home for the old man and he simply buys an 80k house on ebay. Ooookay. Why not. Already peinfully cringeworthy there how Friedrich's character (Jana) cannot look away from the screen when there is the photo of the guy who sold it. Speaking of Jana, I am not entirely sure if this is a part of the film, but in the official summary they are saying she is in her late 30s. What a joke. She does not look one day younger than 50 here, the exact age Friedrich was when she made this movie. So as a consequence it also feels strange because her love interest (the sellor) is indeed 40 years old and he does look a bit younger. Huge age difference here that was not helping at all, especially as there was virtually no chemistry between the two. It is actually really unintentionally hilarious when Oertel's character (Thomas) confesses his love to her and says he likes her, but he doesn't know why. Well, I sure cannot think of a reason either. But of course we are supposed to see Jana as a desirable and successful woman and mother right from the start when we see some random guy show up with a bouquet for her and she receives a second bouquet immediately afterwards. ego boosting of the worst kind. Of course, also her former father-in-law (Pleitgen) is still very fond of her and says his son was an idiot for letting her get away. Unreal stuff honestly.
There are many many other very bad scenes that felt extremely cringeworthy. One good example is the scene with the "grass" when that cop shows up and asks them if they are high and also what Friedrich's character says during that scene. I mean I was almost tempted to feel bad for her there because of the catastrophic dialogue writing, but then I remembered she agreed to star in this film. No sympathy now. Friedrich's character's tallking and actions are always a travesty really, especially when she interacts in one way or the other with the male protagonist and how she feels like a clumsy little girl. Don't even get me started on the beard reference early on about the famous people who wear beards and if tehy are good or evil. This sequence at the new house was a mess in its entirety. Be it the fact that out of nowhere, they just stay there for the night and sleep, for the fact that Pleitgen's character just stays there too and his daughter-in-law drives off without him without saying a word or how Oertel's character talks about his future plans how he is about to go to Mauritania, but not before setting his turtles free into the wild etc. Cringeworthy stuff again how they are really stooping to the lowest lows to depict him as a man of action and adventure. The film starts and ends in the desert by the way with the opening being a preview of what is going to happen at the very end. Yep Jana heads off to Mauritania to be with her beloved man, but definitely not without the pseudo dramatic twist before that that she has no interest in him anymore because of something negative that happened. Right before we get the forced happy ending that, like the rest of the film, has nothing to do with reality. Oh yeah, in-between there is also a brief sequence at the airport. I mean it would have been worse if she actually found him there and they kissed, but no worries, it is just delayed. The garbage ending is inevitable. By the way, I could have sworn I saw Friedrich smmile on several occasions where it did not fit at all in terms of the story, so I don't know maybe the actress at least realized what kind of a travesty project she was a part of here. However, the appropriate reaction would have been crying. Yes it is that bad. This film is a definite contender for worst film of 2016 and I am not just talking about German films, but films in general. Complete failure from beginning to end. Nothing is funny, nothing makes sense. Skip at all cost! I hope I can forget this movie as fast as possible.
So much for the cast. There's others like the young actress who plays the protagonist's daughter, but I won't give any mentions to them. They are as bad as the rest of this film. I will not elaborate a lot on the plot now, but instead give you several reasons, moments and scenes which made it very easy for me to decide this film is utter failure. It isn't even a close call. I already mentioned how Friedrich butchered the already bad material even further and it sure took a special (lack of) talent to make the abysmal script appear even worse. This starts right at the beginning with the illegal activity scene between the title character and his granddaughter and the level stayed this low immediately afterwards at the police station, especially when the old mans aid what he was actually holding in his hand. I mean this film failed from many perspectives, but it never failed as hard as it did in terms of the comedic approach. The consequence of the opening is that they are looking for a new home for the old man and he simply buys an 80k house on ebay. Ooookay. Why not. Already peinfully cringeworthy there how Friedrich's character (Jana) cannot look away from the screen when there is the photo of the guy who sold it. Speaking of Jana, I am not entirely sure if this is a part of the film, but in the official summary they are saying she is in her late 30s. What a joke. She does not look one day younger than 50 here, the exact age Friedrich was when she made this movie. So as a consequence it also feels strange because her love interest (the sellor) is indeed 40 years old and he does look a bit younger. Huge age difference here that was not helping at all, especially as there was virtually no chemistry between the two. It is actually really unintentionally hilarious when Oertel's character (Thomas) confesses his love to her and says he likes her, but he doesn't know why. Well, I sure cannot think of a reason either. But of course we are supposed to see Jana as a desirable and successful woman and mother right from the start when we see some random guy show up with a bouquet for her and she receives a second bouquet immediately afterwards. ego boosting of the worst kind. Of course, also her former father-in-law (Pleitgen) is still very fond of her and says his son was an idiot for letting her get away. Unreal stuff honestly.
There are many many other very bad scenes that felt extremely cringeworthy. One good example is the scene with the "grass" when that cop shows up and asks them if they are high and also what Friedrich's character says during that scene. I mean I was almost tempted to feel bad for her there because of the catastrophic dialogue writing, but then I remembered she agreed to star in this film. No sympathy now. Friedrich's character's tallking and actions are always a travesty really, especially when she interacts in one way or the other with the male protagonist and how she feels like a clumsy little girl. Don't even get me started on the beard reference early on about the famous people who wear beards and if tehy are good or evil. This sequence at the new house was a mess in its entirety. Be it the fact that out of nowhere, they just stay there for the night and sleep, for the fact that Pleitgen's character just stays there too and his daughter-in-law drives off without him without saying a word or how Oertel's character talks about his future plans how he is about to go to Mauritania, but not before setting his turtles free into the wild etc. Cringeworthy stuff again how they are really stooping to the lowest lows to depict him as a man of action and adventure. The film starts and ends in the desert by the way with the opening being a preview of what is going to happen at the very end. Yep Jana heads off to Mauritania to be with her beloved man, but definitely not without the pseudo dramatic twist before that that she has no interest in him anymore because of something negative that happened. Right before we get the forced happy ending that, like the rest of the film, has nothing to do with reality. Oh yeah, in-between there is also a brief sequence at the airport. I mean it would have been worse if she actually found him there and they kissed, but no worries, it is just delayed. The garbage ending is inevitable. By the way, I could have sworn I saw Friedrich smmile on several occasions where it did not fit at all in terms of the story, so I don't know maybe the actress at least realized what kind of a travesty project she was a part of here. However, the appropriate reaction would have been crying. Yes it is that bad. This film is a definite contender for worst film of 2016 and I am not just talking about German films, but films in general. Complete failure from beginning to end. Nothing is funny, nothing makes sense. Skip at all cost! I hope I can forget this movie as fast as possible.
