"Insel des Lichts", which means "Island of Light" is a German television movie from 2008, so this one is already over a decade old, and it runs for approximately 90 minutes, slightly under, just like they usually fo. The director and writer is Wold Gremm and it is a bit sad to see that he once worked with Fassbinder and now (or 10 years ago) this is where his career ended pretty much. And his life as well because hs is not with us anymore. The cast is actually not too bad overall. I am not talking about lead actress Neubauer, who is always difficult to stomach because she lacks talent whatsoever, but the likes of Schwarz, Zierl, Kubitschek, (the recently deceased) Fedder and Hartmann are at least faces that you may have seen in other projects, even if admittedly those have been in some really bad films. You can add Ole Tillmann from Unter Uns, who I thought was basically a gameshow host at that point already, but yeah acting definitely is not his strong side. Then again, luckily he did not have too much screen time anyway. Same is true about Kubitschek and honestly I have no real idea why she was in this film at all. She was just there. That is it basically. Most of the others I mentioned also are not featured too frequently and they wanted to make sure it is never really about anybody except Neubauer's character, maybe Hartmann's too at times because of how close the to are.
There is really a lot wrong with this film. I don't want to go too much into detail here, just a few examples for when the writing was just abysmal, especially the dialogue writing, and when the actors (especially Neubauer) made the material look even worse than it already was and that is quite an achievement because ot was really bad. There is one moment when Neubauer's character randomly screams out something like "Let's just go to the sea". Pure cringe and there are more like these. Many more sadly. This women really tries to make every line so memorable as if she was saying something that an alien invasion is coming. The consequence is that it all feels so over the top and I am somewhat glad. I honestly have no ida why she was getting cast for lead roles for so long because she has zero range, both dramatically and comedically. Luckily, while she is still acting, I think she is not playing central characters anymore these days. But no idea why she constantly did back then. Oh well, can't blame her really. The ones to blame are the casting agents. Or maybe the fact that these films are so bad that they did not get any quality actors on board. I mean it cannot be the fact that she just looks not too shabby for her age because many others look fine too. And when at the end she screams out at the phone that she has a new love interest too, it is unbearable to take and I was glad the film was almost over. Also when she finds out about her daughter being the one who gives the interview, we see her so sad, lying on the ground and clearly it is all too much for her. Then in the next scene we have some other character die in a really artificially constructed sob story about a brain tumor patient that would only bring up emotion in the most and simple audience members. Of course, it is Neubauer's character holding his hand. We should not forget how caring she is towards everybody (on one occasion early on she is even called a saint) and not the dying guy's brother. What? Why? So normally, after the man dies, the protagonist should be even more sad, right? Well no all of a sudden she is happy (because she bonded with her daughter over this death? I'd rather say because they knew the film was about to end and they need to shove that happy ending in the audience's face) and also does not care about her professional careerf anymore either. Speaking of that, it was painful to watch how they were trying to convince us that she is the biggest and most known character on German television. I mean German television is already in a pretty bad spot right now, but not that bad and II am glad reality is still looking different. Then the revelation by her daughter with that Hirschhausen cameo no clue why this would ruin the main charcater's career. Or in order to make sure we really see her as the ultimate "saint" and finally so does her daughter, they use Fedder's character to show us what a pig he was and that it is all his fault and the daughter understands too eventually. Feel pretty bad for the actress there with how tehy made her look like a completely interchangable emo early on. You can't really make that work.
But maybe the most ridiculous moment from the entire film is the pregnancy idea also at the end. I mean yeah he is dying and of course he has nothing better to do than tell his brother and the girlfriend that they should have a child to honor him. And make a little joke about a dog afterwards. I guess with this joke we can be happy, they did not try to go more for comedy here. What a mess. And really rushed one scene later, the girl is pregnant. It is a bit surprising that Neubauer's character as only indirectly part of this rock-bottom moment, but she sure adds her healthy dose of failure too eventually when she talks briefly about how she is still too young for being a grandmother. I mean vlearly her character's (preseumed) attractivity is what kept this actress so long in the industry and in order we don't forget, there are always some (not exactly subtle) references about how she is a desirable woman. Well, I personally can only say that all the desire for me was gone one second into the film when she runs into her studio in the most over the top manner. Neubauer trying to be an actor's actress is just one of the things you really do not want to witness in your life. I mean normally I would say that the script was so bad here that no actor could have make it work to not blame the cast too much, but like I said, some of them (especially the lead) really made things even worse with their approaches. This movie gets a big thumbs-down from me, although admittedly here and there Neubauer's line delivery was so abysmal that I had to laugh. Feel sorry for people who think they see any kind of art in here whatsoever. One of the worst films from 2008 and the imdb rating is still too high. Highly not recommended.
There is really a lot wrong with this film. I don't want to go too much into detail here, just a few examples for when the writing was just abysmal, especially the dialogue writing, and when the actors (especially Neubauer) made the material look even worse than it already was and that is quite an achievement because ot was really bad. There is one moment when Neubauer's character randomly screams out something like "Let's just go to the sea". Pure cringe and there are more like these. Many more sadly. This women really tries to make every line so memorable as if she was saying something that an alien invasion is coming. The consequence is that it all feels so over the top and I am somewhat glad. I honestly have no ida why she was getting cast for lead roles for so long because she has zero range, both dramatically and comedically. Luckily, while she is still acting, I think she is not playing central characters anymore these days. But no idea why she constantly did back then. Oh well, can't blame her really. The ones to blame are the casting agents. Or maybe the fact that these films are so bad that they did not get any quality actors on board. I mean it cannot be the fact that she just looks not too shabby for her age because many others look fine too. And when at the end she screams out at the phone that she has a new love interest too, it is unbearable to take and I was glad the film was almost over. Also when she finds out about her daughter being the one who gives the interview, we see her so sad, lying on the ground and clearly it is all too much for her. Then in the next scene we have some other character die in a really artificially constructed sob story about a brain tumor patient that would only bring up emotion in the most and simple audience members. Of course, it is Neubauer's character holding his hand. We should not forget how caring she is towards everybody (on one occasion early on she is even called a saint) and not the dying guy's brother. What? Why? So normally, after the man dies, the protagonist should be even more sad, right? Well no all of a sudden she is happy (because she bonded with her daughter over this death? I'd rather say because they knew the film was about to end and they need to shove that happy ending in the audience's face) and also does not care about her professional careerf anymore either. Speaking of that, it was painful to watch how they were trying to convince us that she is the biggest and most known character on German television. I mean German television is already in a pretty bad spot right now, but not that bad and II am glad reality is still looking different. Then the revelation by her daughter with that Hirschhausen cameo no clue why this would ruin the main charcater's career. Or in order to make sure we really see her as the ultimate "saint" and finally so does her daughter, they use Fedder's character to show us what a pig he was and that it is all his fault and the daughter understands too eventually. Feel pretty bad for the actress there with how tehy made her look like a completely interchangable emo early on. You can't really make that work.
But maybe the most ridiculous moment from the entire film is the pregnancy idea also at the end. I mean yeah he is dying and of course he has nothing better to do than tell his brother and the girlfriend that they should have a child to honor him. And make a little joke about a dog afterwards. I guess with this joke we can be happy, they did not try to go more for comedy here. What a mess. And really rushed one scene later, the girl is pregnant. It is a bit surprising that Neubauer's character as only indirectly part of this rock-bottom moment, but she sure adds her healthy dose of failure too eventually when she talks briefly about how she is still too young for being a grandmother. I mean vlearly her character's (preseumed) attractivity is what kept this actress so long in the industry and in order we don't forget, there are always some (not exactly subtle) references about how she is a desirable woman. Well, I personally can only say that all the desire for me was gone one second into the film when she runs into her studio in the most over the top manner. Neubauer trying to be an actor's actress is just one of the things you really do not want to witness in your life. I mean normally I would say that the script was so bad here that no actor could have make it work to not blame the cast too much, but like I said, some of them (especially the lead) really made things even worse with their approaches. This movie gets a big thumbs-down from me, although admittedly here and there Neubauer's line delivery was so abysmal that I had to laugh. Feel sorry for people who think they see any kind of art in here whatsoever. One of the worst films from 2008 and the imdb rating is still too high. Highly not recommended.
