"Neue Chance zum Glück" is a German television film from 2011, so not very long anymore until this one here has its tenth anniversary. Nothing to celebrate though and this becomes clear immediately if you take a look at the bodies of work from director Kraemer and writer Blobel. There was only one way this could and it did, namely by becoming a complete mess. The cast here is maybe minimally better than what you usually get for television movies. At the center of it all is Sonsee Neu, who plays the protagonist whose fate is also referenced in the title. Most generic title, that is. It means "a new chance for happiness" and really thousands of films could be named like that. The epitome of pointless schmaltz really and the filmmakers having the audacity to try to persuade audiences that they are coming up woth something creative and meaningful. Disgusting, really. The movie starts right away with this nonsense that Neu's character's husband is not capable of attaching safely a fishing rod or something like that to the top of his car, although this is one of his hobbiest. Then the son shows up and he manages to do so effortlessly. Ridiculous. This (and also how he speaks in a not nice way at all with his offspring) was only included to depict the husband already in a negative light (and the son in a positive light) with things about to happen. Or about to be revealed. Audiences are supposed to dislike vond er Groeben's character immediately and they used the cheapest, most uncreative and uninspired approach possible. Makes no sense at all. The key plot here is namely about the man cheating on Neu's character with her best friend even. The actual act when it becomes known is not depicted graphically, but we see the couple's daughter who enters the room and catches the two in the act. This was very cringeworthy too with how the girl's drink falls down during that moment of revelation and with how e find out quickly afterwards that the girl was throwing up during the entire car drive. Let me tell you as somebody who struggled with unwellness in cars as a kid too when he was young, this has nothing to do with reality. Another area where they failed and messed up for pushing their agenda through. They did not get anything right really. But back to the actual moment of revelation. The action quickly jumps to Neu's character there and we see her get up in the morning too and react in a slightly bizarre way as if she is confused and felt physically that something was very wrong. Extremely pretentious moment there. I mean no actress could have pulled this nonsense of convincingly, but still you can blame Neu (as well as every other cast member here) for accepting a role in this travesty. But of course, this was not a stupidly unrealistic Degeto production if they did not have the next guy totally ready for Neu's character already, the one played by Kai Scheve that she meets already and spends a good time with before even finding out about her husband's unfaithfulness. Scheve's character is of course also the "savior", who finds the girl (that ran away in another pseudo dramatic plot inclusion) up there hiding in a tree.
And there is more drama, also away from this core story. Neu's character's mother is played by Jutta Speidel and her inclusion in basically any film is almost a guarantee for failure. She has no range, no versatility and yet got cast for lead characters for years. An abomination. The good news is she is supporting in this one, but still be assured that the negative impact she has here is as big as it gets and she manages to turn an already really bad movie into something even worse. I am not even talking about the moments how we see her acting towards the unfaithful guy early on when she finds out about it and at the end when she tells him to leave immediately. The epitome of a strong elderly female character right? Well, only for the easily influenced. Of course, her husband, played by Reiner Schöne, answers when being asked if he ever cheated on his wife something like that he does not even understand why he would do so. Of course not, if you are married to a desirable woman like Speidel('s character), you don't even think about other women. Those two also get their own story by the way. She wants to travel, explore the world (of course!), he wants to enjoy his quiet life at home. This is a major part of the movie early on in fact, but gets almost forgotten entirely when the story moves to the cheating plot. Of course, there is still the forced happy ending there for the old couple, one that makes no sense with the old man suddenly being totally keen on travelling with his wife, but who cares. At that point this film was hitting rock bottom already so hard in terms of (lack of) realism that it did not matter anyway anymore. Just let them go to Samoa. Of course, here the woman also gets her will again. Oh yeah, the first thing we find out about the two older characters is that the father had something like a minor heart attack. But hey no prob, minutes later he is already walking around as if nothing happened. This "tragedy" alone would have been enough for a realistic 1.5-hour film already with him coming to terms again with life and his vulnerability, but not so with Degeto. There it is just one of many dramatic inclusions. Way too many for 3 hours by the way and this is a 1.5-hour film... Nuff said. The conequence is that not one single plot is elaborated on convincingly. All is shoddy. All is rushed. And all gets a (slightly) happy ending too as it must be in these films. Of course, they stay eventually. As we find out before the cringeworthy closing song kicks in. The soundtrack was also a complete mess with how it tried to emphasize really poor scenes and moment in the most over-the-top manner. By the way, the phone talk early on when Neu's character finds out about the heart attack is a prime example of how not to depict a phone conversation in a movie. All she said was to inform the audience about what happened, nothing was the way an actual phone call would take place. Really amateurish execution there as well.
Now a few words on Neu's character. She is perfection as the female protagonists usually are. She works as a midwife and how nobody talks in the very first scene except her was cringeworthy already and how she is depicted as a heroine of the people as well. Of course, she also is seen as a colleague almost when speaking with an actual doctor. What an amazing woman right? No surprise she has another guy with romantic interest in her immediately. And no surprise either that her husband keeps whining and begging that she will take him back. And when she is kind-hearted enough to do so, we find out he is real scum and has been cheating on her for months. So also as usual with this films, it is extremely anti-male. I said enough about the husband and the protagonist's father is depicted as lethargic and with this still the most likable male character in here. Or Scheve's character who has to court Sonsee permanently to be worthy. There is nothing else to his character. Oh well, there is the son too, but no clue why he is in here. His mathematics failure story line is idiotic too. You don't fail school with one failed test, no matter how many times you say it is a six. Oh wait, his suuper cool phone reaction "nobody's home" justified the character of course. Again clueless writing. And when there are no male characters involved, we still get utter stupidity. Be it failed dialogue writing for the young girl (she does not ant to see her dad soon) or more crucially the stereotypical mother-daughter conflict that felt forced early on already, but the big argument towards the end is really ridiculous. Of course, the two unite in their hatred against a male character and all is good again and forgotten. I am always amazed by Speidel and how she really gets every scene wrong in her desperate attempts to make an impact. Ultimate ham. Neu feels like Hepburn next to her. One I haven't mentioned yet is Sandra Borgmann. Sad to see what kind of roles she is getting these days compared to her early career. I mean her character was ridiculous all along starting with the first crying scene already, but her "emotional" scene when we realize that she is not the evil one, but the man is (sure thing!) is beyond unbearable. Of course they had to handle things like that, so we do not see 1% evil in Neu's character that she may be interested in another man with how her husband treated her. I shall end now. This review is already much longer than the movie deserves. A contender for worst film of 2011, not just from Germany, but globally. Yes, it is that bad. As an epilogue, one final example, namely the inclusion of animals: the metaphorically "subtle" comment about the wild sow being as much of a caring mother as Neu's character, the pointless deer inclusion and, most of all, the bird joining her when she is on the phone. Unreal stuff. Now I really realize how there were many scenes with characters on the phone and they got each and every one wrong. Impressive! Just like everything else about these almost 90 minutes. That's all and I hope you can see through this charade, especially if you're female.
And there is more drama, also away from this core story. Neu's character's mother is played by Jutta Speidel and her inclusion in basically any film is almost a guarantee for failure. She has no range, no versatility and yet got cast for lead characters for years. An abomination. The good news is she is supporting in this one, but still be assured that the negative impact she has here is as big as it gets and she manages to turn an already really bad movie into something even worse. I am not even talking about the moments how we see her acting towards the unfaithful guy early on when she finds out about it and at the end when she tells him to leave immediately. The epitome of a strong elderly female character right? Well, only for the easily influenced. Of course, her husband, played by Reiner Schöne, answers when being asked if he ever cheated on his wife something like that he does not even understand why he would do so. Of course not, if you are married to a desirable woman like Speidel('s character), you don't even think about other women. Those two also get their own story by the way. She wants to travel, explore the world (of course!), he wants to enjoy his quiet life at home. This is a major part of the movie early on in fact, but gets almost forgotten entirely when the story moves to the cheating plot. Of course, there is still the forced happy ending there for the old couple, one that makes no sense with the old man suddenly being totally keen on travelling with his wife, but who cares. At that point this film was hitting rock bottom already so hard in terms of (lack of) realism that it did not matter anyway anymore. Just let them go to Samoa. Of course, here the woman also gets her will again. Oh yeah, the first thing we find out about the two older characters is that the father had something like a minor heart attack. But hey no prob, minutes later he is already walking around as if nothing happened. This "tragedy" alone would have been enough for a realistic 1.5-hour film already with him coming to terms again with life and his vulnerability, but not so with Degeto. There it is just one of many dramatic inclusions. Way too many for 3 hours by the way and this is a 1.5-hour film... Nuff said. The conequence is that not one single plot is elaborated on convincingly. All is shoddy. All is rushed. And all gets a (slightly) happy ending too as it must be in these films. Of course, they stay eventually. As we find out before the cringeworthy closing song kicks in. The soundtrack was also a complete mess with how it tried to emphasize really poor scenes and moment in the most over-the-top manner. By the way, the phone talk early on when Neu's character finds out about the heart attack is a prime example of how not to depict a phone conversation in a movie. All she said was to inform the audience about what happened, nothing was the way an actual phone call would take place. Really amateurish execution there as well.
Now a few words on Neu's character. She is perfection as the female protagonists usually are. She works as a midwife and how nobody talks in the very first scene except her was cringeworthy already and how she is depicted as a heroine of the people as well. Of course, she also is seen as a colleague almost when speaking with an actual doctor. What an amazing woman right? No surprise she has another guy with romantic interest in her immediately. And no surprise either that her husband keeps whining and begging that she will take him back. And when she is kind-hearted enough to do so, we find out he is real scum and has been cheating on her for months. So also as usual with this films, it is extremely anti-male. I said enough about the husband and the protagonist's father is depicted as lethargic and with this still the most likable male character in here. Or Scheve's character who has to court Sonsee permanently to be worthy. There is nothing else to his character. Oh well, there is the son too, but no clue why he is in here. His mathematics failure story line is idiotic too. You don't fail school with one failed test, no matter how many times you say it is a six. Oh wait, his suuper cool phone reaction "nobody's home" justified the character of course. Again clueless writing. And when there are no male characters involved, we still get utter stupidity. Be it failed dialogue writing for the young girl (she does not ant to see her dad soon) or more crucially the stereotypical mother-daughter conflict that felt forced early on already, but the big argument towards the end is really ridiculous. Of course, the two unite in their hatred against a male character and all is good again and forgotten. I am always amazed by Speidel and how she really gets every scene wrong in her desperate attempts to make an impact. Ultimate ham. Neu feels like Hepburn next to her. One I haven't mentioned yet is Sandra Borgmann. Sad to see what kind of roles she is getting these days compared to her early career. I mean her character was ridiculous all along starting with the first crying scene already, but her "emotional" scene when we realize that she is not the evil one, but the man is (sure thing!) is beyond unbearable. Of course they had to handle things like that, so we do not see 1% evil in Neu's character that she may be interested in another man with how her husband treated her. I shall end now. This review is already much longer than the movie deserves. A contender for worst film of 2011, not just from Germany, but globally. Yes, it is that bad. As an epilogue, one final example, namely the inclusion of animals: the metaphorically "subtle" comment about the wild sow being as much of a caring mother as Neu's character, the pointless deer inclusion and, most of all, the bird joining her when she is on the phone. Unreal stuff. Now I really realize how there were many scenes with characters on the phone and they got each and every one wrong. Impressive! Just like everything else about these almost 90 minutes. That's all and I hope you can see through this charade, especially if you're female.
