What we have here is "Auf den Spuren der Vergangenheit" and this is a German television film from 2005, so it had its 15th anniversary last year already. From the title of my review, you can already see how much I (dis)liked the outcome here. But first things first: The title means "Following the traces of the past" and tha actual international title here is "Shadows of the Past", fairly similar. No matter what perspective you are taking here, it will always be a pseudo important title trying really hard to give additional significance to the movie, but the truth is that this title really could have been used for literally every drama movie with a connection to a key character's past. Then again, the title is kinda fitting because it is style without substance and zero depth, just like everything else linked to this film. And the most pathetic thing is really that they were 100% serious with it all. This is seen as a defining character study and authentic romance story here. Unreal stuff. Not too much to say about the production company. Bavaria Film has been a part of so many bad movies and Degeto is obviously on board again too. No surprise because they have been part of hundreds, if not thousands of terrible films like this one. The only slight surprise is that maybe Regina Ziegler was not in charge this time. The writer and director is Sharon von Wietersheim. Not too often that you see one person taking care of both areas with these many abysmal small screen releases from my country, but this makes it also easy to understand that she is the one who deserves almost all the blame, especially in terms of the screenplay here. By the way, the movie runs for 1.5 hours, minimally under, as they usually do and the good news is that there is no sequel.
Back to the director, the only thing remotely interesting about her is her American origin maybe. Her body of work is terrible otherwise too with maybe the Käthe Kruse film being a bit of an exception, but there she was also not as much in charge as she was here, which is certainly a good thing. I am genuinely worried to see her in charge of an Auschwitz film soon. Haven't those people (and their descendants) suffered enough. Fittingly with the director's name, they also gave all the characters here English names, probably to trick us into thinking these are exquisite Brits or something. Truth is it's a 100% German production with 100% German actors and these are the opposite of good. The perfect example of that would be lead actress Ursula Buschhorn. It's by far not the first film I saw that includes her and she is apparently almost always bad. Fittingly, around that time she appeared in many other genuinely unwatchable romance movies, Traumschiff episodes, Lilly Schönauer adaptations and more. Here we have several moments when it becomes obvious how even the simplest challenges acting-wise were already too much for her. Like she could barely enter a room (with or without a tray full of food) and not make it look fake. The male protagonist is played by Ralf Bauer. He has his heart-throb past with this surfing series and many other projects and he never really managed to get beyond that in his career. He may not be as bad as Buschhorn, but he is still not even remotely good. One of the Ochsenknecht sons plays the male protagonist's son here, dressed up like a British gentleman of course. Not too much to say about him. His father is fairly overrated, but still tolerable at times, but the two boys have absolutely no acting talent, range or versatility here whatsoever. Luckily, his material is not challenging this time, so it does not become too painfully obvious. He is basically just there for the cuteness component. The female protagonist even on one occasion starts rambling about what a sweet boy he is. Unreal stuff.
The supporting cast also includes a handful of pretty experienced actors like Schramm and Tietze. Not too uch to say about those. Tietze was really bad playing the main character's best friend. Oh and Hannah Herzsprung's father is in here too. I always thought her absolutely free of talent and terribly overrated and never even close to the best of German actresses the way people pretended she was. Seeing her roots now it all makes sense. Admittedly, her old man also does not have great material to work with, basically only acting sick and pretending to have constant heart issues while being really stubborn. But nobody forced him to accept the role as this film was always going to be a huge failure. Best example there is we have an older man and he refuses to have heart surgery because he wants to make up with his son first. Makes no sense with the argument they had and because he never really tried to fix it before. But yeah, of course he always had him in his heart. Anyway, this is where the female protagonist comes into play because she has to search for said son (Bauer) and as you could guess from a million miles away, the two would fall for each other. A great deal of pseudo drama is included again too like how he keeps talking about how he wants to stay on his own or how the revelation why she was there threatens to destroy everything. It all felt so fake honestly. I laughed really hard for exammple during the scene with the "All by myself" song playing when she is driving off in the car. As if there was any doubt they would get together again. And when they do, we get Badfinger's "Without You". I don't even. Has there ever been a movie with less subtlety? I doubt it. When they are meeting again in the end on the beautiful seaside, she is accompanied by a white horse obviously. Horses are also visible at the very start to immediately give us the impression that this film is something amazing visually. Oh and the kiss in the end is also shown in slow motion.
I will mention a few more moments when this film really hits rock bottom. One would be the phone call between the two and mostly the inclusion of the question "Is this something good or bad?" on two occasions. You know what I mean when you see it. I cringed sp hard. It felt so written and not in a good way. Another moment would be when the best friend talks about something like nuclear explosion or so to give us a metaphor on the feelings the female protagonist brought up in the male protagonist. Of course, Buschhorn's character is the grand prize and every man would be happy to have her. Speaking of the best friend (Tietze), there was always cringe to her really, she was maybe even worse than Buschhorn. Just take her rambling when she realizes that her friend is in love and how she has always wanted complicated men. Of course, the female main character here has also another dude who wants her so badly and who even comes there to see her and this is also used a bit to make Bauer's character jealous. Of course, the two men know each other. What a small world! Or the scene early on was already bad enough when he does something for her and then asks her out for dinner basically and she says that she won't do it before she found the other guy. Unreal stuff. Not every man can have somebody as amazing as Buschhorn's character in this film. Needless to say that she also went to Oxford and don't even get me started on her family ties here and who her father is. Of course, the man is so famous that Bauer's character immediately recognizes the name.
As for Bauer's character, he gets his own pointless sob story with the mother of the little Ochsenknecht boy here. And how this woman was the most desirable of them all and all the men wanted her, but he got her, but still he is the one who eventually has to come for Buschhorn's character, apologize to her, fight for her etc. Obviously, father and son are also reunited in the end and he is there to see his dad and the old man also meets his grandson. Which is of course all thanks to Buschhorn's character because she is the link between them and her efforts to make this family reunion happen are utterly impressive. Every area of the movie must have a happy ending. Oh and Bauer's character is of course a great guy from other perspectives too, really educated as he studied (English?) literature and philosophy. Another very cringeworthy moment I need to mention would be the scene when she parks in the wrong spot early on and he is there to act a bit arrogant. As I said, it's a small world and it always happens so often in these films that the two lovebirds are not too friendly with each other when they meet for the first time. Often with nonsense coincidence like the way we got it here.
What else can I mention? Oh yes, I guess she really must not be busy with her work or since when do doctors search for patients' family in such an excessive manner. Anyway, I know it was supposed to feel caring, but she had a bit of a stalker tendency for me fur sure. Just look how she reacts and keeps asking when it comes to Bauer's character's son and family on one occasions. Really unlikable how she keeps snooping around. And how about letting basically a complete stranger take care of your son, but hey, she had such a great connection with the boy immediately that the kid was truly happy about it and that explains it I suppose. It was just hilariously bad, definitely the kind of movie so terrible that it was unintentionally funny at times, like when they were talking about their British ancestors or when they were leading deep meaningful discussions about life while walking on the beach. It all felt so fake. I honestly cannot believe that this film here is around a six out of ten rating-wise and it is not as if three or four people rated it. How simple must one be to fall for this charade. There are many other scenes, inclusions and quotes here I could mention to illustrate how poor the outcome overall is, but I guess I'll leave it at that. Oh these distinguished people in here. The outcome is the exaxt opposite. Simple, dumb and vile.
Back to the director, the only thing remotely interesting about her is her American origin maybe. Her body of work is terrible otherwise too with maybe the Käthe Kruse film being a bit of an exception, but there she was also not as much in charge as she was here, which is certainly a good thing. I am genuinely worried to see her in charge of an Auschwitz film soon. Haven't those people (and their descendants) suffered enough. Fittingly with the director's name, they also gave all the characters here English names, probably to trick us into thinking these are exquisite Brits or something. Truth is it's a 100% German production with 100% German actors and these are the opposite of good. The perfect example of that would be lead actress Ursula Buschhorn. It's by far not the first film I saw that includes her and she is apparently almost always bad. Fittingly, around that time she appeared in many other genuinely unwatchable romance movies, Traumschiff episodes, Lilly Schönauer adaptations and more. Here we have several moments when it becomes obvious how even the simplest challenges acting-wise were already too much for her. Like she could barely enter a room (with or without a tray full of food) and not make it look fake. The male protagonist is played by Ralf Bauer. He has his heart-throb past with this surfing series and many other projects and he never really managed to get beyond that in his career. He may not be as bad as Buschhorn, but he is still not even remotely good. One of the Ochsenknecht sons plays the male protagonist's son here, dressed up like a British gentleman of course. Not too much to say about him. His father is fairly overrated, but still tolerable at times, but the two boys have absolutely no acting talent, range or versatility here whatsoever. Luckily, his material is not challenging this time, so it does not become too painfully obvious. He is basically just there for the cuteness component. The female protagonist even on one occasion starts rambling about what a sweet boy he is. Unreal stuff.
The supporting cast also includes a handful of pretty experienced actors like Schramm and Tietze. Not too uch to say about those. Tietze was really bad playing the main character's best friend. Oh and Hannah Herzsprung's father is in here too. I always thought her absolutely free of talent and terribly overrated and never even close to the best of German actresses the way people pretended she was. Seeing her roots now it all makes sense. Admittedly, her old man also does not have great material to work with, basically only acting sick and pretending to have constant heart issues while being really stubborn. But nobody forced him to accept the role as this film was always going to be a huge failure. Best example there is we have an older man and he refuses to have heart surgery because he wants to make up with his son first. Makes no sense with the argument they had and because he never really tried to fix it before. But yeah, of course he always had him in his heart. Anyway, this is where the female protagonist comes into play because she has to search for said son (Bauer) and as you could guess from a million miles away, the two would fall for each other. A great deal of pseudo drama is included again too like how he keeps talking about how he wants to stay on his own or how the revelation why she was there threatens to destroy everything. It all felt so fake honestly. I laughed really hard for exammple during the scene with the "All by myself" song playing when she is driving off in the car. As if there was any doubt they would get together again. And when they do, we get Badfinger's "Without You". I don't even. Has there ever been a movie with less subtlety? I doubt it. When they are meeting again in the end on the beautiful seaside, she is accompanied by a white horse obviously. Horses are also visible at the very start to immediately give us the impression that this film is something amazing visually. Oh and the kiss in the end is also shown in slow motion.
I will mention a few more moments when this film really hits rock bottom. One would be the phone call between the two and mostly the inclusion of the question "Is this something good or bad?" on two occasions. You know what I mean when you see it. I cringed sp hard. It felt so written and not in a good way. Another moment would be when the best friend talks about something like nuclear explosion or so to give us a metaphor on the feelings the female protagonist brought up in the male protagonist. Of course, Buschhorn's character is the grand prize and every man would be happy to have her. Speaking of the best friend (Tietze), there was always cringe to her really, she was maybe even worse than Buschhorn. Just take her rambling when she realizes that her friend is in love and how she has always wanted complicated men. Of course, the female main character here has also another dude who wants her so badly and who even comes there to see her and this is also used a bit to make Bauer's character jealous. Of course, the two men know each other. What a small world! Or the scene early on was already bad enough when he does something for her and then asks her out for dinner basically and she says that she won't do it before she found the other guy. Unreal stuff. Not every man can have somebody as amazing as Buschhorn's character in this film. Needless to say that she also went to Oxford and don't even get me started on her family ties here and who her father is. Of course, the man is so famous that Bauer's character immediately recognizes the name.
As for Bauer's character, he gets his own pointless sob story with the mother of the little Ochsenknecht boy here. And how this woman was the most desirable of them all and all the men wanted her, but he got her, but still he is the one who eventually has to come for Buschhorn's character, apologize to her, fight for her etc. Obviously, father and son are also reunited in the end and he is there to see his dad and the old man also meets his grandson. Which is of course all thanks to Buschhorn's character because she is the link between them and her efforts to make this family reunion happen are utterly impressive. Every area of the movie must have a happy ending. Oh and Bauer's character is of course a great guy from other perspectives too, really educated as he studied (English?) literature and philosophy. Another very cringeworthy moment I need to mention would be the scene when she parks in the wrong spot early on and he is there to act a bit arrogant. As I said, it's a small world and it always happens so often in these films that the two lovebirds are not too friendly with each other when they meet for the first time. Often with nonsense coincidence like the way we got it here.
What else can I mention? Oh yes, I guess she really must not be busy with her work or since when do doctors search for patients' family in such an excessive manner. Anyway, I know it was supposed to feel caring, but she had a bit of a stalker tendency for me fur sure. Just look how she reacts and keeps asking when it comes to Bauer's character's son and family on one occasions. Really unlikable how she keeps snooping around. And how about letting basically a complete stranger take care of your son, but hey, she had such a great connection with the boy immediately that the kid was truly happy about it and that explains it I suppose. It was just hilariously bad, definitely the kind of movie so terrible that it was unintentionally funny at times, like when they were talking about their British ancestors or when they were leading deep meaningful discussions about life while walking on the beach. It all felt so fake. I honestly cannot believe that this film here is around a six out of ten rating-wise and it is not as if three or four people rated it. How simple must one be to fall for this charade. There are many other scenes, inclusions and quotes here I could mention to illustrate how poor the outcome overall is, but I guess I'll leave it at that. Oh these distinguished people in here. The outcome is the exaxt opposite. Simple, dumb and vile.
