"Die Heilerin" is an Austrian German-language television film from 2004, so this one had its 15th anniversary already last year. And still it is shown on national television nowdays despite how old it already is. It sure shouldn't be, but I will get to that later. First things first: The title means translated "The Healer" (female form) and it is an okay title, could be worse, even if the problem is that the movie never really elaborates on the healer in a way where such a title would be justified. But this is not the title's problem. It is the problem of the entire movie. The director is Holger Barthel. He turned 60 last year and has been in the industry since the mid90s. Still working nowadays too. He has mostly worked on television series over the years, so this 1.5-hour full feature film is a bit of an exception you can certainly say. However, his body of work is the opposite of quality, so I am not surprised how weak the outcome here is. I think the one more to blame than Barthel is writer Mitterer. He is over 70 now already, was in his mid50s when he worked on this film and his body of work is more about (mostly television) movies than shows (still, especially one he worked on is really famous to this day) and also he has been in the industry since the mid/late 1970s already, so truly a long, long time and for that the outcome of script and story here is a massive disappointment. Examples later. The title character is played by Ruth Drexel. She is not Austrian like the writer, but even those people wwho were a part of cast and crew back then and do not come from Austria usually come from the south of Germany to fit in with the tone, language and landscape. This also applies to the director. Drexel was already pretty old when she made this film and maybe seemed even older than she was, but she lived on for another almost five years after the movie. In here she plays a woman with a really special gift, namely healing people who struggle from any medical condition. Cannot be any more specific here because it's people will all kinds of conditions who come to see her in here. As for the rest of the cast, I cannot say a lot. Not many known actors. Maybe Austrians know some of them better. Mangold is one I have come across in other projects and she was also really old back then, but is still alive now in 2020. And Lea Kurka who plays the central child character in here. A bit of a pity she did not pursue acting in the long run. It seemed she really has some talent and was in for a decent career for years to come. But if she is happy now with whatever she does after being out of films and everything for a decade, than it is absolutely okay. her choice. And early on, there was another pretty stunning woman who went to see a doctor and talk about him about breast implants or so. Sadly, I cannot really find the name here on the movie's imdb profile page. It was just a one scene performance anyway, but she stayed in the mind, even if it probably was not meant for being likable because these operations were a bit of a contrast to the title characters healing powers.
Okay, now a few words on the story and movie itself and why I did not end up liking it at all. Of course, the idea of a woman being able to cure suffering patients only with her hands is a very daring one because it goes up against science and medicine the way we know it. As a consequence, it would have been absolutely necessary to come up with something really creative and convincing to make this work. After all, it is the key story of the film. They did not succeed ith that massive endeavor. Not one bit. Honestly, it almost felt as if they weren't even trying. In one scene we have the protagonist suffer because of her gift and she says she cannot do it anymore while only very short time later we have her on the screen and see how she basically helping people who wait at her doorstep. There are no convincing explanations. No satisfiying character study elements. Nothing. Instead, the film loses itself constantly in the unhappy marriage story involving the main character's daughter. Here and there we also find out a bit about her daughter or granddaughter if we are talking about the main character. Kurka played her in this film. These were still the better parts, like she seemed like a likable girl with for example how she says on one occasion she likes most being for herself. I can relate. Sort of. At least when I was her age. Anyway, there are okay moments here, don't get me wrong. But they are just not often enough. For example the scene when the protagonist's daughter has her meltdown and cries and says on the phone that she would love to work in the practice was alright. Better acting than expected. But then again there are also weak scenes like for example when the title character's (I should call her that instead of "protagonist") man treats a patient in a way that no doctor ever would. And these moments are far more frequent. Like for one alright moment at least three weak moments. At least they did not want us to believe she can also cure blind people now. That would have been too much. But it was too much without such an inclusion as well already. The best (i.e. worst) example was the drama with the severely injured daughter near the very end. Definitely had an ounce of pseudo drama for the sake of it. Also how all this happens to her, so many vital changes that most people have maybe within ten years she has within ten days, around the time she has her 20th wedding anniversary? Yeah well, like I said it is too much to still feel authentic and credible. The accident in the end is just the foul icing on the cake. Also, one thing i want to mention at the very end, although I could have mentioned it earlier already because it really sucked was the soundtrack. Don't know the guy who worked in this specific production department this time, but he sounds Asian, so i am a bit surprised he was a part of this. Anyway, it doesn't matter where his roots are. The only thing that matters is the quality of his work. Or lack thereof I should say. It was literally unlistenable. Like "unwatchable", only for the ears. So over the top, so pretentious, way too loud too compared to the talking and sound effects. It was just a mess. Like pretty much everything else related to this movie. The bigger abomination, however, is that they made a sequel a few years later and got back the key cast and crew members. No justification for that. One was already one film too many without a doubt. Definitely skip.
Okay, now a few words on the story and movie itself and why I did not end up liking it at all. Of course, the idea of a woman being able to cure suffering patients only with her hands is a very daring one because it goes up against science and medicine the way we know it. As a consequence, it would have been absolutely necessary to come up with something really creative and convincing to make this work. After all, it is the key story of the film. They did not succeed ith that massive endeavor. Not one bit. Honestly, it almost felt as if they weren't even trying. In one scene we have the protagonist suffer because of her gift and she says she cannot do it anymore while only very short time later we have her on the screen and see how she basically helping people who wait at her doorstep. There are no convincing explanations. No satisfiying character study elements. Nothing. Instead, the film loses itself constantly in the unhappy marriage story involving the main character's daughter. Here and there we also find out a bit about her daughter or granddaughter if we are talking about the main character. Kurka played her in this film. These were still the better parts, like she seemed like a likable girl with for example how she says on one occasion she likes most being for herself. I can relate. Sort of. At least when I was her age. Anyway, there are okay moments here, don't get me wrong. But they are just not often enough. For example the scene when the protagonist's daughter has her meltdown and cries and says on the phone that she would love to work in the practice was alright. Better acting than expected. But then again there are also weak scenes like for example when the title character's (I should call her that instead of "protagonist") man treats a patient in a way that no doctor ever would. And these moments are far more frequent. Like for one alright moment at least three weak moments. At least they did not want us to believe she can also cure blind people now. That would have been too much. But it was too much without such an inclusion as well already. The best (i.e. worst) example was the drama with the severely injured daughter near the very end. Definitely had an ounce of pseudo drama for the sake of it. Also how all this happens to her, so many vital changes that most people have maybe within ten years she has within ten days, around the time she has her 20th wedding anniversary? Yeah well, like I said it is too much to still feel authentic and credible. The accident in the end is just the foul icing on the cake. Also, one thing i want to mention at the very end, although I could have mentioned it earlier already because it really sucked was the soundtrack. Don't know the guy who worked in this specific production department this time, but he sounds Asian, so i am a bit surprised he was a part of this. Anyway, it doesn't matter where his roots are. The only thing that matters is the quality of his work. Or lack thereof I should say. It was literally unlistenable. Like "unwatchable", only for the ears. So over the top, so pretentious, way too loud too compared to the talking and sound effects. It was just a mess. Like pretty much everything else related to this movie. The bigger abomination, however, is that they made a sequel a few years later and got back the key cast and crew members. No justification for that. One was already one film too many without a doubt. Definitely skip.
