"Sprung ins Leben", which means "Jump into Life", is a German television film from 2014, so this one os already over half a decade old and maybe much closer to a decade even depending on when you read this review. It runs for slightly under 1.5 hours as they usually do and the director here is Austrian Matthias Steurer. I have come across some other stuff he made on different occasions and while I believe that Austria has delivered a pretty decent amount of good films in the new millennium for a relatively small country and also brought to light quite a few talented filmmakers, Steurer fits nowhere in this category that I have respect for. His relatively early years were still decent, but the longer it went, the more south it went as well. The fact that he has worked on many of these absolutely horrible ARD Degeto films combined with the absolutely not artistic Theaterkunst is self-explanatory. He is all quantity. Zero quality. The one good thing you can say here that despite how critical I see him, he is still above the talent (or utter absence thereof) from writer Tim Krause. Absolutely atrocious filmography. One garbage project followed by the next, most of them television episodes, but some full feature length too. Lindström, Schönauer, Pilcher, SOKO, Bergdoktor, Edel & Starck - it's all there. The pond scum of German small screen entertainment. Shhameful stuff. I may sound harsh, but it's the truth and there is no justification for people letting this absolutely untalented writer still constantly be in charge of screenplays after everything he messed up. And if still this is not enough evidence that there is no talent whatsoever involved with this movie here, then I have two words for you: Simone Thomalla. One of the worst leading actresses the country has ever seen. Unreal how she still gets chosen for key characters. She has two face expressions max per movie and basically plays the same character in every film she is in. Unwatchable. Here and there, she even manages the impossible to make an already horrible script seem even more worthless with her complete absence of talent. Oh well. Not too much to say about the rest of the cast. I think Lucas Reiber is kinda on the rise. Good for him. By the way, already pretty telling how amateurish it all is that the production company apparently created this imdb page and messed up the plot summary by including Reiber's name in brackets not just once, but twice. No professionalism here whatsoever. Götz Otto also shows up in here and kinda sad that he went from Bond to travesty like this film here. It's not the only Degeto films I have seen with him that is utter nonsense. Maybe he really is 100% muscles, 0% talent (what I thought when he carries the drunk boy) although admittedly nobody from the cast here is as pathetic as Thomalla, while funnily they are trying to convince us she plays a deep character and has a lot of range. Utter make-believe. I feel bad for everybody who keeps falling for scammers like her, Neubauer, Ferres, Furtwängler etc.
Okay, not back to this one: The title is already pretty pretentious and shows how this film takes itself seriously 100% despite not having the slightestg artistic impact that would justify taking itself seriously. On one occasion, it was even so bad that I burst into laughter, namely when we see the boy in the wheelchair almost at the very end and he turns round and we see the chains on his arms. I know this was supposed to be a tragic shot, but it was executed so embarrassingly try-hard that I had to laugh a lot. Of course, he left the webpage open, so his mother knew exactly what was going on. Please don't tell me this was a silent cry for help. And there is no justification at all for the girl to leave class "because she was feeling sick" and know through telepathy or so where he was and what he had on his kind. Then again, everything involving this girl (I suppose the glasses were there to have her look like some likable nerd) was a joke and not a good one. Not just her talking right before that about how he cannot even have an erection anymore probably because he hurt her, but also the entire story with her seeing him for what he really is and the other girl being shallow enough to ditch him because he is in the wheelchair. Or take the guy who is his enemy early on and the two still become a bit closer because he has a guilty conscience or so. Like how that one sees immediately which girl really likes him. Or when he saves wheelchair boy from the lake. That was ridiculous too. I mean pseudo drama at its worst. We have a guy who is about to become a professional football player perhaps, so somebody really athletic, but we are supposed to believe he cannot even swim by using only his arms? I can do that. Easily. And I have no major sports background and I am twice as old. Absolutely unrealistic. What else? Oh yes, back to Thomalla's character: She of course has had a hugely successful career on her own in the hotel industry being in charge of a team at a five-star hotel now and about to climb the next career ladder even. No need for false modesty here as always with Thomalla. But hey, her struggles with her now disabled son have an impact on her professional life too as she gets important dates mixed up. Oh well, she is only a human too right? Of course, she is an amazing mother making clear thatg school always comes first and then the football career or how she talks about her worries when the boy is up in the air with Otto's character is pathetic to say the least. But still written in a way that not even the best actress could have made some of these lines work. Unreal stuff again. And of course, she does not need men to succeed. The boy's father disappeared quickly after the kid's birth because he was a pig and Otto's character will also really have to try hard to have a chance with her, but he wants her so bad as we see on several occasions. Don't even get me started about the scene in which they met with him outside at the window. Doesn't get more cringe than that. There are many other scenes and moments that deserve a mention because they illustrate perfectly how horrible this movie is, but I'll just lose a few words on the ending and them I am done and I hope I can forget about this film as soon as possible. There is this potential suicide moment (they just love the idea of kids running away in Degeto films). but boom when the girl arrives, it is fixed immediately and not only that. His death wish came so out of nowhere and it is gone equally fast as we see him jump outside a plane with some sort of parachute jump together with Otto's character and this is what the title refers to. So we get the full mountain of failure here, also the forced happy ending. Career-wise, all is great for Thomalla's character again too and both her and her soon (are about to) have amazing romance relationships. And if that is not enough already, we see how Thomalla gets a call from the clinic telling her about certain therapies, so recovery for his son all of a sudden is also an option again. Let's go 100% unrealistically happy shall we while we're at it. It's so embarrassing that you could say it is almost offensive as if it is mocking people who are actually in a wheelchair. And all this while on other occasions the film clearly tries to be accurate from the medical perspective. It's just shameful. All of it really. Highly not recommended and I give this film a massive thumbs-down. Sad thing is this will be shown for another decade at least on national television. Your GEZ money at work, folks.
Okay, not back to this one: The title is already pretty pretentious and shows how this film takes itself seriously 100% despite not having the slightestg artistic impact that would justify taking itself seriously. On one occasion, it was even so bad that I burst into laughter, namely when we see the boy in the wheelchair almost at the very end and he turns round and we see the chains on his arms. I know this was supposed to be a tragic shot, but it was executed so embarrassingly try-hard that I had to laugh a lot. Of course, he left the webpage open, so his mother knew exactly what was going on. Please don't tell me this was a silent cry for help. And there is no justification at all for the girl to leave class "because she was feeling sick" and know through telepathy or so where he was and what he had on his kind. Then again, everything involving this girl (I suppose the glasses were there to have her look like some likable nerd) was a joke and not a good one. Not just her talking right before that about how he cannot even have an erection anymore probably because he hurt her, but also the entire story with her seeing him for what he really is and the other girl being shallow enough to ditch him because he is in the wheelchair. Or take the guy who is his enemy early on and the two still become a bit closer because he has a guilty conscience or so. Like how that one sees immediately which girl really likes him. Or when he saves wheelchair boy from the lake. That was ridiculous too. I mean pseudo drama at its worst. We have a guy who is about to become a professional football player perhaps, so somebody really athletic, but we are supposed to believe he cannot even swim by using only his arms? I can do that. Easily. And I have no major sports background and I am twice as old. Absolutely unrealistic. What else? Oh yes, back to Thomalla's character: She of course has had a hugely successful career on her own in the hotel industry being in charge of a team at a five-star hotel now and about to climb the next career ladder even. No need for false modesty here as always with Thomalla. But hey, her struggles with her now disabled son have an impact on her professional life too as she gets important dates mixed up. Oh well, she is only a human too right? Of course, she is an amazing mother making clear thatg school always comes first and then the football career or how she talks about her worries when the boy is up in the air with Otto's character is pathetic to say the least. But still written in a way that not even the best actress could have made some of these lines work. Unreal stuff again. And of course, she does not need men to succeed. The boy's father disappeared quickly after the kid's birth because he was a pig and Otto's character will also really have to try hard to have a chance with her, but he wants her so bad as we see on several occasions. Don't even get me started about the scene in which they met with him outside at the window. Doesn't get more cringe than that. There are many other scenes and moments that deserve a mention because they illustrate perfectly how horrible this movie is, but I'll just lose a few words on the ending and them I am done and I hope I can forget about this film as soon as possible. There is this potential suicide moment (they just love the idea of kids running away in Degeto films). but boom when the girl arrives, it is fixed immediately and not only that. His death wish came so out of nowhere and it is gone equally fast as we see him jump outside a plane with some sort of parachute jump together with Otto's character and this is what the title refers to. So we get the full mountain of failure here, also the forced happy ending. Career-wise, all is great for Thomalla's character again too and both her and her soon (are about to) have amazing romance relationships. And if that is not enough already, we see how Thomalla gets a call from the clinic telling her about certain therapies, so recovery for his son all of a sudden is also an option again. Let's go 100% unrealistically happy shall we while we're at it. It's so embarrassing that you could say it is almost offensive as if it is mocking people who are actually in a wheelchair. And all this while on other occasions the film clearly tries to be accurate from the medical perspective. It's just shameful. All of it really. Highly not recommended and I give this film a massive thumbs-down. Sad thing is this will be shown for another decade at least on national television. Your GEZ money at work, folks.
