"Familie ist kein Wunschkonzert" is a German television film that premiered back in 2017, so it is almost 3 years old now, probably more, depending on when you read this review of mine. Director of these 90 minutes is Sebastian Hilger (Wir sind die Flut/We are the flood, which was also not a particularly good watch if I remember correctly, same level as this one here) and he is also one of the two writers here. I think this was his third full feature movie and his fourth comes out this year. He is still a relatively young filmmaker, actually born the exact same year like myself apparently and I watched another film from him and that one did not impress me either. The other writer is Nadine Gottmann and these two have collaborated on other occasions too. She was born one year later than him or probably less or more than twelve months because we don't have any specific birthdates with these two, at least not here on imdb and I am too lazy to look elsewhere now. In any case, they will probably be in the industry for a long time to come and I hope it can be a creative journey. This one here makes some hope, but sometimes it also feels like the exact opposite. Overall, I would say this movie did not impress me too much. I mean there are struggles between the characters, but some of it really felt a bit difficult to believe. Just take how we are supposed to believe these sisters are very close with each other and conflicts only temporary and yet the two older sisters have no clue that the younger one stopped with her studies and took a completely different career path. I mean it makes sense that maybe she did not want to tell them right away about her suspicion in terms of how she may have another father than they do because this is so close to her heart and the film's key issue, but keeping quiet about her wish to become a police officer? Come on.
I'd say that looking at the cast Hilger had at his disposal, this could have been better overall. I mean it is not a failure and also not a superb cast, but Steffi Kühnert has shown in the past that she can give strong performances, also in lead roles, and Claudia Eisinger (Mängelexemplar) is a favorite of mine, not only in terms of looks, but also in terms of acting. And Kohlhof is a bit of a rising star these days. All three of them were wasted for different reasons. Kühnert was completely wasted pretty much for a character who may be close to the younger actresses, but has almost zero impact story-wise here. Eisinger's character felt honestly really unrealistic and this refers to the entire romance story with the guy who really likes her apparently, but this is not rock bottom yet. Things do get worse when they rush in a pregnancy for her character towards the end and of course somebody else is the father and now all of a sudden Eisinger's character has to fight for the guy who adores her and not the other way around. At least you cannot say this is as much of an anti-male movie as so many others that are shown on German television, but kinda sad if I have to list this as a pro already as it should be a given by all means. It's still somewhat anti-male with all the fella does for her and it it at least implied that he will stay with her and raise the child of another man because of how much he likes her. And don't even get me started on the story when he climbs up to her window and gets a kiss right afterwards. Or gets a kiss after the fire scene and how he is the cool dude with the way he is talking to the cop like a boss. Or how Eisinger's character says something that she never considered him really a love interest and just a few minutes later she acts like madly in love and misses him like crazy etc. But as exaggerated as Eisinger's character's story is, same applies to the other two sisters: Kohlhof's key story with how she deals with knowing that her father is not her biological father is alright for a central story, but even there it includes many struggles like the way how she finds out is pretty bizarre and also not too realistic. And finally, the third sister, the oldest I think, tries to get pregnant desperately for a while, but the outcome is that in the end she realizes and accepts that her partner treats her really badly and she manages to ditch him. So quite a big jump from wanting a child with somebody to being single again. Too much for 1.5 hours, at least the way they are shown here to be honest. I really hope that Hilger can finally step things up, especially in terms of writing, but honestly I m not too optimistic. He may not be super experienced, but he is also far from a rookie.
There are other fairly weak aspects. One example would be the music. I mean I really like "Nothing Else Matters" and Tom Hooper's "Les Misérables", but the way how they used these two songs ("Do You Hear the People Sing" for the latter, such a famous tune) was downright cringeworthy and pseudo important and it shows really that this film took itself much more important than it had the right to do. It was meant as a bit of a road movie with the girls finding their true identities and who they belong to (maybe even themselves "only) most of all on the journey home to their parents' wedding anniversary with the bad news always with them in terms of one girl knowing she is not the man's biological daughter. I said I liked this one, but the exact execution there was also not too great. Best example is the scene when she confronts her real father. Or also how they included the idea that maybe it is best not to tell the man she wrongly thought was her dad because he might not know himself. I mean it felt just out of place. It should have been a possibility from the very start or not at all. But the way they included it here (even if the inclusion was right) is another area where the film felt really underwhelming when dealing with a really important issue. The final dramatic twist with "daddy" having run away and they are very worried that he could hurt himself also felt very much for the sake of it. The loud and dramatic music there was also truly obnoxious. Of course, there is finally the happy ending, also really rushed and unauthentic, when they find him.
There are more weaknesses to mention that make it pretty obvious to me that this film is very much closer to a truly low rating than to one that implies a positive recommendation. But then again, Theaterkunst GmbH is part of this (or Theater"kunst" GmbH as I prefer to call them because there is no Kunst/art to anything they do, especially these uncountable Degeto films. Not sure this is one as well, but the production company has the word "Berlin" in its name, so it takes place in my city? Did not make an impact there either in terms of how I saw places and locations that I like and/or remember. But what I actually wanted to add were two inclusions involving the oldest sister from the trio and how these brought down the film even more. This includes of course the French lesbian they are running into there and how said sister is pretty attracted to her and apparently discovers her bisexual tendencies during this trip. Sure thing. The worst moment was probably when she was talking to her evil, evil man at home and at the same time makes out with the lady. And at the end of this scene, her phone falls down and it can be seen as a metaphor that she lets the man fall. Not sure you can say it in English like that, but in German it's a common saying and definitely no coincidence. It means to ditch him. It was almost a bit of a nice revelation as we find out that the French chick is a criminal, but we are supposed to see it that what she gave to the oldest sister in terms of finding out about yourself was worth the material loss said sister suffered. And as for the ditching, it needed a studied psychologist driving a taxi to show the oldest sister that it is really high time for her to get rid of her man. This was easily one of the worst scenes of the entire movie and that means quite something. Then again, you probably could have guessed from the film's pretty embarrassing title that you are not in for a treat here. It means basically: "With family, you can't always get what you want.", but the German title is more of a common saying that everything happens in a concert and you can wish exactly and tell the band all the songs they should play.
The outcome here is so disappointing honestly. I think that the story at the center of the movie was decent, or at least the idea of said story, but what they made with it from pretty much every perspective is just far from the level it should have been, so that I could call it a good movie. You never know with German small screen releases, but I hope they are not going for a sequel at some point. Story and ending could certainly justify it, but as far as I am concerned probably this one film is already one too many to be honest. This is a film that was on television really often in the last couple months and maybe more often than every other film, which is a bit surprising because this is not a super recent film and it is definitely not a good film. The story with the youngest sister is certainly still better than the plots for the two other sisters, but the fact that it is better does not mean it is good. In this case, it just means that the rest is really poor. But they had to give every sister their own story line I suppose. And what they did with it was absolutely nothing to be proud of. Rarely felt realistic and in its worse moments, this was way below two stars out of five. Finally, one more scene that I struggled with was the family reunion in the train when the ticket inspector is about to tell the youngest sister to leave the family area. Then the two others show up... Gotta give it a thumbs-down. Oh and characters talking to other characters while making a headstand is almost always a cringeworthy watch and very much for the sake of it. In short: Watch something else instead.
I'd say that looking at the cast Hilger had at his disposal, this could have been better overall. I mean it is not a failure and also not a superb cast, but Steffi Kühnert has shown in the past that she can give strong performances, also in lead roles, and Claudia Eisinger (Mängelexemplar) is a favorite of mine, not only in terms of looks, but also in terms of acting. And Kohlhof is a bit of a rising star these days. All three of them were wasted for different reasons. Kühnert was completely wasted pretty much for a character who may be close to the younger actresses, but has almost zero impact story-wise here. Eisinger's character felt honestly really unrealistic and this refers to the entire romance story with the guy who really likes her apparently, but this is not rock bottom yet. Things do get worse when they rush in a pregnancy for her character towards the end and of course somebody else is the father and now all of a sudden Eisinger's character has to fight for the guy who adores her and not the other way around. At least you cannot say this is as much of an anti-male movie as so many others that are shown on German television, but kinda sad if I have to list this as a pro already as it should be a given by all means. It's still somewhat anti-male with all the fella does for her and it it at least implied that he will stay with her and raise the child of another man because of how much he likes her. And don't even get me started on the story when he climbs up to her window and gets a kiss right afterwards. Or gets a kiss after the fire scene and how he is the cool dude with the way he is talking to the cop like a boss. Or how Eisinger's character says something that she never considered him really a love interest and just a few minutes later she acts like madly in love and misses him like crazy etc. But as exaggerated as Eisinger's character's story is, same applies to the other two sisters: Kohlhof's key story with how she deals with knowing that her father is not her biological father is alright for a central story, but even there it includes many struggles like the way how she finds out is pretty bizarre and also not too realistic. And finally, the third sister, the oldest I think, tries to get pregnant desperately for a while, but the outcome is that in the end she realizes and accepts that her partner treats her really badly and she manages to ditch him. So quite a big jump from wanting a child with somebody to being single again. Too much for 1.5 hours, at least the way they are shown here to be honest. I really hope that Hilger can finally step things up, especially in terms of writing, but honestly I m not too optimistic. He may not be super experienced, but he is also far from a rookie.
There are other fairly weak aspects. One example would be the music. I mean I really like "Nothing Else Matters" and Tom Hooper's "Les Misérables", but the way how they used these two songs ("Do You Hear the People Sing" for the latter, such a famous tune) was downright cringeworthy and pseudo important and it shows really that this film took itself much more important than it had the right to do. It was meant as a bit of a road movie with the girls finding their true identities and who they belong to (maybe even themselves "only) most of all on the journey home to their parents' wedding anniversary with the bad news always with them in terms of one girl knowing she is not the man's biological daughter. I said I liked this one, but the exact execution there was also not too great. Best example is the scene when she confronts her real father. Or also how they included the idea that maybe it is best not to tell the man she wrongly thought was her dad because he might not know himself. I mean it felt just out of place. It should have been a possibility from the very start or not at all. But the way they included it here (even if the inclusion was right) is another area where the film felt really underwhelming when dealing with a really important issue. The final dramatic twist with "daddy" having run away and they are very worried that he could hurt himself also felt very much for the sake of it. The loud and dramatic music there was also truly obnoxious. Of course, there is finally the happy ending, also really rushed and unauthentic, when they find him.
There are more weaknesses to mention that make it pretty obvious to me that this film is very much closer to a truly low rating than to one that implies a positive recommendation. But then again, Theaterkunst GmbH is part of this (or Theater"kunst" GmbH as I prefer to call them because there is no Kunst/art to anything they do, especially these uncountable Degeto films. Not sure this is one as well, but the production company has the word "Berlin" in its name, so it takes place in my city? Did not make an impact there either in terms of how I saw places and locations that I like and/or remember. But what I actually wanted to add were two inclusions involving the oldest sister from the trio and how these brought down the film even more. This includes of course the French lesbian they are running into there and how said sister is pretty attracted to her and apparently discovers her bisexual tendencies during this trip. Sure thing. The worst moment was probably when she was talking to her evil, evil man at home and at the same time makes out with the lady. And at the end of this scene, her phone falls down and it can be seen as a metaphor that she lets the man fall. Not sure you can say it in English like that, but in German it's a common saying and definitely no coincidence. It means to ditch him. It was almost a bit of a nice revelation as we find out that the French chick is a criminal, but we are supposed to see it that what she gave to the oldest sister in terms of finding out about yourself was worth the material loss said sister suffered. And as for the ditching, it needed a studied psychologist driving a taxi to show the oldest sister that it is really high time for her to get rid of her man. This was easily one of the worst scenes of the entire movie and that means quite something. Then again, you probably could have guessed from the film's pretty embarrassing title that you are not in for a treat here. It means basically: "With family, you can't always get what you want.", but the German title is more of a common saying that everything happens in a concert and you can wish exactly and tell the band all the songs they should play.
The outcome here is so disappointing honestly. I think that the story at the center of the movie was decent, or at least the idea of said story, but what they made with it from pretty much every perspective is just far from the level it should have been, so that I could call it a good movie. You never know with German small screen releases, but I hope they are not going for a sequel at some point. Story and ending could certainly justify it, but as far as I am concerned probably this one film is already one too many to be honest. This is a film that was on television really often in the last couple months and maybe more often than every other film, which is a bit surprising because this is not a super recent film and it is definitely not a good film. The story with the youngest sister is certainly still better than the plots for the two other sisters, but the fact that it is better does not mean it is good. In this case, it just means that the rest is really poor. But they had to give every sister their own story line I suppose. And what they did with it was absolutely nothing to be proud of. Rarely felt realistic and in its worse moments, this was way below two stars out of five. Finally, one more scene that I struggled with was the family reunion in the train when the ticket inspector is about to tell the youngest sister to leave the family area. Then the two others show up... Gotta give it a thumbs-down. Oh and characters talking to other characters while making a headstand is almost always a cringeworthy watch and very much for the sake of it. In short: Watch something else instead.
