"Im Zweifel" is a German television film that premiered back in 2016 and as it actually came out in January, this is already over five years old. It runs for minimally under 1.5 hours like the vast majority of German small screen films. You see two key players on the poster here, even if nobody is more at the center of the story than the woman on the left. But I will get to cast and characters later on. For now, let's focus on Aelrun Goette (very unusual first name). She is the director here and back then she had her 50th birthday. She started in the late 1990s already, so fairly experienced filmmaker as, back when this was made, her career already lasted for almost two decades. She was never the most prolific though, so other filmmakers may have done more in the last 25 years, but that's not a problem at all. Quality over quantity no matter what as far as I am concerned. She also worked in several other fields throughout the years, but directing was always key. Here and there, she also wrote the screenplays herself. Not so this time. They got Dorothee Schön for that here. If we ignore the Tatort inclusions, she also has a pretty decent body of work. Five years older than the director and she also launched her career a decade older, pretty much briefly after I was born. Most recently, Schön was part of the successful Charité series. Ironically, she is not the one born in Berlin, but Goette is. Both women have received a solid amount of awards recognition for her projects. But still this is a Degeto films, but none of the unwatchable ones luckily as you can see from my rating. Degeto produced so many terrible films over the years that it isn't even funny anymore. Here quality prevailed though. According to imdb, the only awards recognition this film received was for its stunt work, which may certainly seem a bit unexpected, but if you saw the first shots basically with the car up in the air, then maybe you know why. Still, I cannot see many other action-packed scenes here where I would expected that, but good news for François Doge, even if he did not win the category. I see he is also part of the new Matrix movie, so managed an international breakthrough as well it seems, even if it is not a key position apparently.
As for the cast, I already mentioned the two people on the poster here. The actress on the left is Claudia Michelsen, somewhat known here in Germany, maybe the name rather than the face, but also not a star or anything. The man on the right is Henning Baum who plays her husband in this movie. Many will maybe know him from the (terrible) series "Der letzte Bulle", but here he plays a different role. Very different. The cop is actually the other guy. It probably also helps that there is 0% comedy in this film here. Like none because the desperate shot at being funny was the biggest problem for the show I just mentioned, even if Baum's character's co-lead there was way worse than him. He also isn't great in this film here, but he also does not have the material to truly shine. He is alright with what he is given, but in-depth this film is never about anybody except Michelsen and her character. Thomas Loibl deserves a mention too. He is always pretty easy to identify physically and I think he played his part nicely too. There's other experienced cast members like Hochholdinger, Schroedter, Bundschuh and Trebs that I do not really want to go into detail about now. Feel free to check out their bodies of work if you care. One I do want to mention though is Thomas Thieme and if you take a look at his filmography, the amount of films he has appeared in is pretty spectacular and there are also some pretty good films included there. Sure, maybe he only plays minor characters in pretty much all of these, but I like the man and always enjoy it when I see he is in a movie. This film is no exception here. Paula Knüling deserves a mention for playing a car accident victims's sister here, even if I am not sure if I liked her performance or her physicality. That's pretty much it. Unfortunately, the cast list here on imdb looks pretty chaotic in terms of the order. Michelsen should be first of course and then the two men I mentioned early on.
I must say I was slightly worried with this movie and the showy beginning, namely the stunt scene that I mentioned early on that it could turn into style over substance for the most part, but luckily it did not. The outcome convinced me for the most part and it is a decent character study. There may be flaws here, but the story of a female priest struggling with life and her relationships after the tragic car accidnet of a girl she knew worked for the most part. I also also a bit positively surprised by Michelsen here. Gently-speaking, her role selection is not always exactly convincing, but with this film she made good choice and she also proves at times that she is above what ARD Degeto usually comes up with. Same for Baum and for him it is still a bit unusual to see him in an ARD movie. The title here is pretty simple by the way, just means "In doubt" and that is a good choice too I think. No make-believe and it fits the protagonist's mental state with her struggles when it comes to thinking about her life, her partner and her profession. My favorite sequence was maybe the one early on in the car with her and the police fella, not a simple policeman, but already had a decent career if I remember right. There they are waiting for the parents to arrive, so they can inform them about the death of one of their daughters. This was pretty tense and even if the two got along well, you could say and see that there was a certain tragedy to this situation. But it was not also those bigger sequences that felt right, but also those smaller moments, like the words she says before the dead girl is taken away from the place of the accident.
If I focus on the aspects that I did not like too much, then this definitely refers to the idea of how her husband or son could have been the driver of the car that caused the accident and drive away quickly immediately afterwards. This was too much of a coincidence for my liking to be honest. Already that the type of car and color apparently fit, but also that the car had minor damage, so you could really think it was one of their closest. They should have done without that. The protagonist's doubts when it comes to her relationship with Baum's character did not need this background for a potential escalation. A bit disappointing because other than that the film does well with delivering and elaborating in a subtle manner on certain key aspects. Indirectly connected to this is sadly also the usual idea of ARD Degeto films that they almost always have some kind of anti-male subtext and this is highly disappointing. Here it is not as obvious as with those films that are shown in the afternoon, but it is still there. I mean she does not have a long sexual relationship with the cop, but still she does things with this other guy that her man (Baum) would not be happy about at all. And there is not the slightest bit of blame on her nonetheless and if a man did the same, he would be treated 100% as an antagonist in a film like this. Luckily, in the end they kinda made the right decisions by telling us that they caught the actual driver of the car and that it was not her man or her son. The moment when the kid is brought by police though was not exactly one of the film's best moments. And even if I do not appreciate one bit of Michelsen's character's cheating here, I still kinda liked the last shot. It was pretty harmonic as we see her with her man and the two are really gentle and caring towards eacch other again. Maybe it was a bit too much closure and happiness though, also with how she decided to take steps to no longer see the cop professionally.
Then there is the element of her job and that she commits acts as a priest that she should not have. She is not scared of lying if it helps people, such as the sister who was out as well and who felt enough trouble already anyway and even after her lie became known to the girl, she did not regret making it. Puts another question mark behind her work as a priest nonetheless. And her connection with the Church is also a bit on the doubtful side as we find out during the talk about a same-sex incident with other influential people from that region that play a bit of a role in terms of the church there. This includes Thieme's character whose role never became 100% clear. At least not to me. He was a bit of a mentor, but at the same time critical as well. Anyway, her liberal thought during the issue I just mentioned were another inclusion I did not like too much. This felt very much for the sake of pleasing the generally very liberal and left mainstream media here in my country. Schmusekurs I could say. Can't come up with a fitting term in English right now, but it means that the film was scared of taking any risks in some areas. Not too surprising though because ARD and its news coverage are the exact opposite of neutral and unbiased, no matter how often they may say they are. Okay, that is another completely different subject. Other than that, the movie does a lot right I would say and I am glad it got made. It's still slightly a close call between a thumbs-up and thumbs-down overall, but I think eventually the good moments are more frequent and more dominant than the weak moments. Another example of a good, but very brief moment would be the two men exchanging glances at the very end when Michelsen's character is holding her speech. A positive surprise overall. Go watch this one if you get the chance. Looking at the number of ratings here, it is clearly underseen. The rating itself though seems fairly accurate.
As for the cast, I already mentioned the two people on the poster here. The actress on the left is Claudia Michelsen, somewhat known here in Germany, maybe the name rather than the face, but also not a star or anything. The man on the right is Henning Baum who plays her husband in this movie. Many will maybe know him from the (terrible) series "Der letzte Bulle", but here he plays a different role. Very different. The cop is actually the other guy. It probably also helps that there is 0% comedy in this film here. Like none because the desperate shot at being funny was the biggest problem for the show I just mentioned, even if Baum's character's co-lead there was way worse than him. He also isn't great in this film here, but he also does not have the material to truly shine. He is alright with what he is given, but in-depth this film is never about anybody except Michelsen and her character. Thomas Loibl deserves a mention too. He is always pretty easy to identify physically and I think he played his part nicely too. There's other experienced cast members like Hochholdinger, Schroedter, Bundschuh and Trebs that I do not really want to go into detail about now. Feel free to check out their bodies of work if you care. One I do want to mention though is Thomas Thieme and if you take a look at his filmography, the amount of films he has appeared in is pretty spectacular and there are also some pretty good films included there. Sure, maybe he only plays minor characters in pretty much all of these, but I like the man and always enjoy it when I see he is in a movie. This film is no exception here. Paula Knüling deserves a mention for playing a car accident victims's sister here, even if I am not sure if I liked her performance or her physicality. That's pretty much it. Unfortunately, the cast list here on imdb looks pretty chaotic in terms of the order. Michelsen should be first of course and then the two men I mentioned early on.
I must say I was slightly worried with this movie and the showy beginning, namely the stunt scene that I mentioned early on that it could turn into style over substance for the most part, but luckily it did not. The outcome convinced me for the most part and it is a decent character study. There may be flaws here, but the story of a female priest struggling with life and her relationships after the tragic car accidnet of a girl she knew worked for the most part. I also also a bit positively surprised by Michelsen here. Gently-speaking, her role selection is not always exactly convincing, but with this film she made good choice and she also proves at times that she is above what ARD Degeto usually comes up with. Same for Baum and for him it is still a bit unusual to see him in an ARD movie. The title here is pretty simple by the way, just means "In doubt" and that is a good choice too I think. No make-believe and it fits the protagonist's mental state with her struggles when it comes to thinking about her life, her partner and her profession. My favorite sequence was maybe the one early on in the car with her and the police fella, not a simple policeman, but already had a decent career if I remember right. There they are waiting for the parents to arrive, so they can inform them about the death of one of their daughters. This was pretty tense and even if the two got along well, you could say and see that there was a certain tragedy to this situation. But it was not also those bigger sequences that felt right, but also those smaller moments, like the words she says before the dead girl is taken away from the place of the accident.
If I focus on the aspects that I did not like too much, then this definitely refers to the idea of how her husband or son could have been the driver of the car that caused the accident and drive away quickly immediately afterwards. This was too much of a coincidence for my liking to be honest. Already that the type of car and color apparently fit, but also that the car had minor damage, so you could really think it was one of their closest. They should have done without that. The protagonist's doubts when it comes to her relationship with Baum's character did not need this background for a potential escalation. A bit disappointing because other than that the film does well with delivering and elaborating in a subtle manner on certain key aspects. Indirectly connected to this is sadly also the usual idea of ARD Degeto films that they almost always have some kind of anti-male subtext and this is highly disappointing. Here it is not as obvious as with those films that are shown in the afternoon, but it is still there. I mean she does not have a long sexual relationship with the cop, but still she does things with this other guy that her man (Baum) would not be happy about at all. And there is not the slightest bit of blame on her nonetheless and if a man did the same, he would be treated 100% as an antagonist in a film like this. Luckily, in the end they kinda made the right decisions by telling us that they caught the actual driver of the car and that it was not her man or her son. The moment when the kid is brought by police though was not exactly one of the film's best moments. And even if I do not appreciate one bit of Michelsen's character's cheating here, I still kinda liked the last shot. It was pretty harmonic as we see her with her man and the two are really gentle and caring towards eacch other again. Maybe it was a bit too much closure and happiness though, also with how she decided to take steps to no longer see the cop professionally.
Then there is the element of her job and that she commits acts as a priest that she should not have. She is not scared of lying if it helps people, such as the sister who was out as well and who felt enough trouble already anyway and even after her lie became known to the girl, she did not regret making it. Puts another question mark behind her work as a priest nonetheless. And her connection with the Church is also a bit on the doubtful side as we find out during the talk about a same-sex incident with other influential people from that region that play a bit of a role in terms of the church there. This includes Thieme's character whose role never became 100% clear. At least not to me. He was a bit of a mentor, but at the same time critical as well. Anyway, her liberal thought during the issue I just mentioned were another inclusion I did not like too much. This felt very much for the sake of pleasing the generally very liberal and left mainstream media here in my country. Schmusekurs I could say. Can't come up with a fitting term in English right now, but it means that the film was scared of taking any risks in some areas. Not too surprising though because ARD and its news coverage are the exact opposite of neutral and unbiased, no matter how often they may say they are. Okay, that is another completely different subject. Other than that, the movie does a lot right I would say and I am glad it got made. It's still slightly a close call between a thumbs-up and thumbs-down overall, but I think eventually the good moments are more frequent and more dominant than the weak moments. Another example of a good, but very brief moment would be the two men exchanging glances at the very end when Michelsen's character is holding her speech. A positive surprise overall. Go watch this one if you get the chance. Looking at the number of ratings here, it is clearly underseen. The rating itself though seems fairly accurate.
