"Das Wasser des Lebens", which means "The Water of Life", is a German television film from 2017. And the fact that this one runs for only an hour approximately makes it easy to guess already that this is another fairytale film. One of really many that were made here in German in the new millennium and the vast majority run for 60 minutes approximately, slightly under. This is definitely not one of the most famous ones. It has to do with not too many people having heard of this tale although it is by the famous Brothers Grimm. The consequence is also that the cast is not too spectacular. However, let's start with the men in charge behind the camera. The director is Alexander Wiedl and I cannot say anything positive about him at all. He has worked on the likes of "Sturm der Liebe", "SOKO", "Marienhof" etc. so almost exclusively on projects that are considered among the weakest German television has to offer. Writer David Ungureit has some better projects in his body of work, also some weak ones, but for him it is at least not 100% messy like for the director. I guess Ungureit's inclusion here and also the fact that he has worked on screenplays for other of these fairytale films are the reason why this one is not a failure, but just an underwhelming film overall I'd say. And this makes it maybe the best career effort for Wiedl even. Now as for the cast: It is not unusual that the key players, i.e. the protagonist and his love interest, most of the time are played by newcomers or fresh faces. In contrast to that, they frequently pick very established actors for characters like the king or the main antagonist etc. And this is also partially true. Gil Ofarim is one that many will recognize. However, he is not really an actor. He does what is required here, but also he never really elevated the material. He's perhaps a better musician than actor. Said king this time is played by Matthias Brenner and he is indeed a very established actor, already was back in 2017 when this came out, so it is neither a really new or old film. As for Brenner, he also appeared in the Oscar-winning "Das Leben der Anderen" and still I was a bit surprised that I did not recognize him at all with his long years of work and also because I love the movie I just mentioned, which is one of my favorites of all time and I can see why people say it is the best German film of all time. I may keep an eye on Brenner next time I see this one. Still, his inclusion here makes me a bit sad for two reasons. The first is that there is very little to the king this time and it is almost impossible for the actor to make an impact. And the second reason is (no disrespect to Brenner) that I was not amused to see Ingolf Lück watsted on such a nothing role like the king's doctor. He has been a vital part of the German entertainment industry for so long and it really sucks to see how tiny his roles are right now, even if admittedly he was always more of a comedian than an actor, but still. Oh well, in a world where scrubs like Oliver Welke have major impact, maybe it's better if the likes of Lück are in or close to retirement.
Okay, now for the story. I actually liked it at the core. But I felt they made very little of it. The beginning was already a bit messy how they threw us right into the action. No introduction, nothing. We see the father is sick and find out that drilling a hole into the skull (thanks Ingolf) may not be the best solution, but that there is a really effective potion (or water) that can cure every illness. So the nest half hour is basically all about finding said potion and as a consequence about the struggles and challenges the protagonist has to master to get the potion. With these challenge I struggled a bit too. There were three of them and I believe they could have depicted them in a more interesting fashion. I must also say I have not read the original tale by the Brothers Grimm (why are they not credited here?) and I really doubt the first challenge in particular was the way they depicted it here. Honestly this looked more like a mathematics riddle for students and not like something out of a fantasy tale. Shame. Maybe it's just me though. Also the drama they created with how little time he has left felt very much for the sake of it. When he takes on these three challenges, he is already accompanied by the female protagonist. If you can call her that even. This was really the most uninspired and random love story I have seen in a while. Not a lot of chemistry and it felt hard to cheer for them. Of course, they get married in the end and she saves the man basically, but at that point I really didn't care anymore. Also the girl had to solve her own issues first, i.e. breathe life into characters dear to her that were the victims of a terrible curse. Okay, back to the evil brother. While our hero solves the riddle, that one is basically sitting on the ground for over half the movie it seems. That felt strange. I mean a lot of time passed and he was already not unconscious (anymore) when the action moved away from him. In general, this film felt very much for the sake of it. Also this woman played by the Black actress did not add half as much intrigue and suspense as they wanted to convince us she did. Finally a few more words on the king and this is what I was referring to with the words about him (and/or the actor) early on. He is just a strong puppet really. He believe the evil son everything he says and could not be any more naive. I mean he knew these kids for 20 years or so and still he has no clue what they are like. And still when a random girl shows up that he has never seen before he all of a sudden understands it all and punishes the evil son, is willing to kill him even. This felt all for taking a turn for the good and right, but in terms of story-telling purposes it was such a mess. I am sure they could have found a better way there, cut some of the less meaningful sequences and instead elaborate on this matter with more attention to detail. I mean it was really a key moment. Disappointing. All in all, there is just too much negative here for me to give a positive recommendation. It is by no means a failure, but much more flawed than most other of these new or relatively new fairytale adaptations. I still like them overall. But I can see why this is one of the least seen and it should be. Not convinced and the best evidence that I did not really care for this one is that all I am thinking about is if the original tale was as weak as this adaptation and not about the adaptation I just say. Watch something else instead. Also pretty unusual that there are literally no animals at all in this fairytale, never a good thing for me with how much I like fauna.
Okay, now for the story. I actually liked it at the core. But I felt they made very little of it. The beginning was already a bit messy how they threw us right into the action. No introduction, nothing. We see the father is sick and find out that drilling a hole into the skull (thanks Ingolf) may not be the best solution, but that there is a really effective potion (or water) that can cure every illness. So the nest half hour is basically all about finding said potion and as a consequence about the struggles and challenges the protagonist has to master to get the potion. With these challenge I struggled a bit too. There were three of them and I believe they could have depicted them in a more interesting fashion. I must also say I have not read the original tale by the Brothers Grimm (why are they not credited here?) and I really doubt the first challenge in particular was the way they depicted it here. Honestly this looked more like a mathematics riddle for students and not like something out of a fantasy tale. Shame. Maybe it's just me though. Also the drama they created with how little time he has left felt very much for the sake of it. When he takes on these three challenges, he is already accompanied by the female protagonist. If you can call her that even. This was really the most uninspired and random love story I have seen in a while. Not a lot of chemistry and it felt hard to cheer for them. Of course, they get married in the end and she saves the man basically, but at that point I really didn't care anymore. Also the girl had to solve her own issues first, i.e. breathe life into characters dear to her that were the victims of a terrible curse. Okay, back to the evil brother. While our hero solves the riddle, that one is basically sitting on the ground for over half the movie it seems. That felt strange. I mean a lot of time passed and he was already not unconscious (anymore) when the action moved away from him. In general, this film felt very much for the sake of it. Also this woman played by the Black actress did not add half as much intrigue and suspense as they wanted to convince us she did. Finally a few more words on the king and this is what I was referring to with the words about him (and/or the actor) early on. He is just a strong puppet really. He believe the evil son everything he says and could not be any more naive. I mean he knew these kids for 20 years or so and still he has no clue what they are like. And still when a random girl shows up that he has never seen before he all of a sudden understands it all and punishes the evil son, is willing to kill him even. This felt all for taking a turn for the good and right, but in terms of story-telling purposes it was such a mess. I am sure they could have found a better way there, cut some of the less meaningful sequences and instead elaborate on this matter with more attention to detail. I mean it was really a key moment. Disappointing. All in all, there is just too much negative here for me to give a positive recommendation. It is by no means a failure, but much more flawed than most other of these new or relatively new fairytale adaptations. I still like them overall. But I can see why this is one of the least seen and it should be. Not convinced and the best evidence that I did not really care for this one is that all I am thinking about is if the original tale was as weak as this adaptation and not about the adaptation I just say. Watch something else instead. Also pretty unusual that there are literally no animals at all in this fairytale, never a good thing for me with how much I like fauna.
