"Die Galoschen des Glücks" is a German television film from 2018, so still relatively new and fresh and of course this is one of these really many fairytale movies they have come up with in Germany for more than a decade. Like most of the others there, this film runs for minimally under an hour, so it is not a long watch by any means. The title is a bit difficult to translate for me because the word "Galoschen" is one that is really not too common in German anymore which made it even a bit difficult to come up with a translation as I am not 100% sure about the meaning. However, the English terms if not too different, so you could say "The galoshs of happiness". Of course, the film takes place during the days of princesses and maidservants, so it is set centuries back in the past, which again makes sense that they use this term. It's overshoes I see. Anyway, I think this is originally based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, one of the most known fairytale writers out there still, maybe second to the Brothers Grimm here in my country, but they of course got the massive advantage that they are German and Andersen is Danish. So he may be even more famous in other countries, even if he probably does not have the sheer quantity of tale to him the way the Brothers Grimm do. This one here I maybe have heard the title, but I could not say one bit what it is about before watching this film. Also a bit of a shame Andersen has no credit here on imdb. Instead, the writers here are Brinx and Kömmerling, both in their 50s now and they have collaborated so many times in the past that you can say it is almost a guarantee that if one of the duo is working on a project, then the other is as well. Also they have been in charge many times of the screenplays for these short fairytale movies. The director is Friederike Jehn, not as prolific as her writers here, but also far from a rookie as she started making (short) films at the beginning of the new millennium. Many times she also came up with the scripts herself, but not so this time. As for the cast, we have only twwo familiar names: Annette Frier and Inka Friedrich that German film buffs are certainly aware of. This is the usual thing here basically to include some known actors for the older characters and pick new faces for the younger central characters. It is only partially true here though. Some of the younger actors have actually been in many projects, but I am not sure this is a good thing. If they just cast people who have been on GZSZ etc., then I totally do not support this approach. At least Josefine Voss is pretty attractive, even if she is not the likable one. How we find out about her real character as the film progresses and if it feels realistic is up to you to decide. As for Frier and Friedrich (their last names kinda start in a similar fashion, four letters, don't have that too often), I inda would have expected reversed roles who plays the more positive and who the pessimistic part, but it works this way too. Certainly the film improves a bit every time they are on screen and I am saying this as somebody who does not like Frier as much as he did 10 or 15 years ago and as somebody who never say much in Friedrich. this basically says it all about how forgettable the rest of the film is.
Frier and Friedrich are always together on the screen (just like the writers) and they have more screen time early on as well when they even sometimes communicate with the protagonist(s). In the second half, they are basically nothing but observers. I think the film did not start too well, then got a bit better, but in the end was back to its forgettable self. Early on, I struggled a bit with how the protagonist as depicted. For example the scene with the fish or how he falls down from the chair or so. It is okay though. I assume these moments were included in the original tale, but I still think they could have found a better way of bringing them to the screen. In general, I struggled a bit with the movie because lead actor Jonas Lauenstein did almost nothing for me. He is the GZSZ guy, so I assume ARD here wanted to cash in a bit with his popularity from the biggest German soap opera. That the latter is on another channel they did not care one bit about. Then again, the entire GEZ concept shows us very well that morals and ARD do not fit together. But we are drifting a bit away now from this one here, so back to the story. The plot is pretty generic for these films. We have a simple young man who wants to be with the rich and influential and he manages with the help of magic to get there, even becomes a couple with the princess he desires so much. All this without reaizing where he really belongs (and with whom) and how morally bankrupt his new peers are. In the end, he finds out though and there is a happy ending of course. Oh yes, another thing that bothered me a bit is that the shoes mentioned in the title could have been featured more prominently if they are part of the title already. I mean they are just shoes okay and I am not sure how much they are featured in Andersen's tale, but the way it was handled here, it is not a good title. Costumes and make-up as well as sets are alright though, as always with these small screen fairytale releases from pretty recently. Maybe the film's biggest strength. There are no true weaknesses in fact, but also nothing that stands out in a way frequently enough for me to give a positive recommendation here. I have seen some of these fairytale films, probably easily more than 50% and this recent one gets a thumbs-down from me. Not recommended. I guess the filmmakers are partially to blame here (probably also to some extent the cast, even if there are characters and roles that worked fine for me and fit in convincingly like one of the two male main antagonists although he had only little screen time, he did great with being obnoxious), but also maybe there is a reason why it took them this long for this story to get picked for a film. Maybe nothing stands out too much here in general and it is not too famous for good reason. cannot say for sure though because, as I think i stated earlier, I have not read this one from Andersen. Maybe one day I will. This film did not get me too curious. You should skip the watch here in any case. Go for some of the other tales instead. Or for something completely different.
Frier and Friedrich are always together on the screen (just like the writers) and they have more screen time early on as well when they even sometimes communicate with the protagonist(s). In the second half, they are basically nothing but observers. I think the film did not start too well, then got a bit better, but in the end was back to its forgettable self. Early on, I struggled a bit with how the protagonist as depicted. For example the scene with the fish or how he falls down from the chair or so. It is okay though. I assume these moments were included in the original tale, but I still think they could have found a better way of bringing them to the screen. In general, I struggled a bit with the movie because lead actor Jonas Lauenstein did almost nothing for me. He is the GZSZ guy, so I assume ARD here wanted to cash in a bit with his popularity from the biggest German soap opera. That the latter is on another channel they did not care one bit about. Then again, the entire GEZ concept shows us very well that morals and ARD do not fit together. But we are drifting a bit away now from this one here, so back to the story. The plot is pretty generic for these films. We have a simple young man who wants to be with the rich and influential and he manages with the help of magic to get there, even becomes a couple with the princess he desires so much. All this without reaizing where he really belongs (and with whom) and how morally bankrupt his new peers are. In the end, he finds out though and there is a happy ending of course. Oh yes, another thing that bothered me a bit is that the shoes mentioned in the title could have been featured more prominently if they are part of the title already. I mean they are just shoes okay and I am not sure how much they are featured in Andersen's tale, but the way it was handled here, it is not a good title. Costumes and make-up as well as sets are alright though, as always with these small screen fairytale releases from pretty recently. Maybe the film's biggest strength. There are no true weaknesses in fact, but also nothing that stands out in a way frequently enough for me to give a positive recommendation here. I have seen some of these fairytale films, probably easily more than 50% and this recent one gets a thumbs-down from me. Not recommended. I guess the filmmakers are partially to blame here (probably also to some extent the cast, even if there are characters and roles that worked fine for me and fit in convincingly like one of the two male main antagonists although he had only little screen time, he did great with being obnoxious), but also maybe there is a reason why it took them this long for this story to get picked for a film. Maybe nothing stands out too much here in general and it is not too famous for good reason. cannot say for sure though because, as I think i stated earlier, I have not read this one from Andersen. Maybe one day I will. This film did not get me too curious. You should skip the watch here in any case. Go for some of the other tales instead. Or for something completely different.
