"Zimmer mit Tante", which means "Room with Aunt", is a German television film from 2010, so this one has its 10th anniversary this year, but this fact is not a reason to be happy and maybe even celebrate, just a reason to be shocked that this movie is still shown on the small screen here despite its age and quality. Or lack thereof. The director of these 90 minutes is Thomas Kronthaler and looking at the other stuff he has worked on over the years, it becomes clear pretty quickly that you really need to keep your expectations low for the outcome here. And even if you do, they will probably still be disappointed. The writer is Walter Metzger and this is his only credit to this date. Pretty surprising because these films show on German television usually have a "renowned" circle of screen writers to them and they are pretty prolific most of the time. So it is kinda good that, with the weak outcome here, Metzger apparently understood that the movie industry is not the right choice for him. Or at least those understood who perhaps rejected his contributions to future projects. Still it must be said that it can always happen that you mess up a movie. As long as it happens only once, it is not appreciated, but at least tolerable. Same can certainly not be said abbout Kronthaler. Unreal he is still making films these days. Now let's take a deeper look at the project at hand: You see on the cast list and on the photo here on imdb that the first credit is Jutta Speidel and I have a feeling that there is not one single project in her body of work that I would give a thumbs-up to. Yes, she is that bad. Or at least not a project, in which she plays the lead. That much is safe. I think if there is one actress where the description 100% applies that she plays the same character in every move, then it is Speidel. Self-confident elderly women with the heart at the right spot, who still know what they want from life. That would be alright if Speidel had only 10% of the required range in her to make these characters work. Even less talented than Sägebrecht, but the characters are pretty similar, maybe Speidel's a bit more on the bossy side. She does not. In this film here, you see it during the scene with the woman who does not like the egg, the handyman and also early on when and how she refuses to make a call for her niece. And don't tell me that her psychotherapy or whatever is referenced in here repeatedly is something that gives her depth. She is written as poorly as she is portrayed. Highly embarrassing. Of course, also she needs no make-up for men to show interest in her. She is the one who picks the guy(s) she wants to be with. Nobody else. As for her younger co-lead Nadia Hilker here, she is only slightly better. Her admittedly attractive looks help the matter a bit, but she also has her fair share of horrible dialogue writing. One "great" example for this is her quote about how an empty hotel is the same like an empty chair that nobody sits in. What the heck? Or also when she screams out that she is quitting, i.e. leaving. That was one of the most embarrassing moments of the film. And apparently they are even proud of it ("they" means Metzger) as they reference back to this scene when later on the says it was invalid and she will return. Both female character also get their fair share of anti-male comments and generalisations that are simply disgusting. If it was the other way around, female rights advocates would sue (if anybody had seen this crappy movie, that is), but here it is alright and funny and witty because this is mostly directed at female audiences. I applaud those females who see through this charade. Anyway, the Speidel quote is one when she says that some job is so easy that even men can do it. And the niece's anti-male meltdown happens at the club in the end. Of course, Speidel's character knew immediately that guy is not right for her niece. How smart she is. Really difficult for me to see class and depth and talent (the creative talent they want us to believe she has) when the actress does not have 1% of these things and is just as horrible as she is in every other film she's in. Make-believe of the worst kind.
Then there are the usual story lines about who is the young woman's real friend, the girl who encourages her to steal, so she has to go to jail eventually or the one working with her at the home for the elderly. I mean the one who tells at the very start that, if she messes up, she will go to jail. In the presence of a resident. I sure would be happy if I knew a criminal is taking care of my daily needs. So would my family. Is this even possible from the legal perspective? Not sure at all. Then again, with all this film is(n't), I absolutely should not ask for realism and authenticity here. It already starts with Hilker's character being 17 apparently and it is clear that the actress is way older. One must be really stupid to fall for that. Ingo Naujoks is in here too and he is one I generally like quite a bit, but of course he cannot make the script work either and his character is written as poorly as everybody else. At least he has the advantage that his story is not one where the film takes itself truly seriously and he makes it watchable at times. His talk to Speidel's character about the young woman and her lack of dedication and talent at the end (which was clearly meant to encourage the woman to defend her) was also cringeworthy the way it was written. Oh how brilliant, they must be really smart to use reverse psychology here. Okay, what else? The playing and joking around between the two women with the two pillows and water hose later on was difficult to stomach for me. Really embarrassing and a perfect example to show us how the two now really got along well and how Speidel's character was still young at heart. As soon as she was opening her cold cold heart, that is. But Hilker's character helps her with that. Oh what great chemistry these two have. The entire idea of how they grew closer felt as forced as predictable. And the happy ending was also as expected as forced with Speidel's character being ready for romance with the twon hall guy as well as the bad influence from these other kids out of the young woman's life and the two women at the center of the story still living together and getting along better than ever before. Okay that is all. Just one final example from late in the film how the dialogue writing in here was especially bad and I am talking about the "the aunt is to blame" when Speidel's character talks about herself as if she was somebody else to defend her niece and make sure that she herself is blamed and not the young woman. That courtroom speech (also what follows) was really in a nutshell all that is wrong with this movie. So full of itself despite the complete absence of talent. I give it a definite thumbs-up and highly encourage you to keep a great deal of distance to this one. Absolutely not recommended. Oh and I was just about to write that I am surprised Hilker plays a lead in a movie here in what was her very first film appearance ever, but I do not remember her at all from anything else, so I thought she was at best playing supporting characters in Inga Lindström movies these days and then I see she plays a recurring character on "The Walking Dead" now??? What? Really? Okay, that was surprising, even if the show is probably clearly past its peak. I just hope she got better since 2010, even if the script here is also massively to blame for how embarrassing (all about) her character turned out. Anyway, this surprising inclusion on American television does not make this film from ten years ago any better. Skip at any cost.
Then there are the usual story lines about who is the young woman's real friend, the girl who encourages her to steal, so she has to go to jail eventually or the one working with her at the home for the elderly. I mean the one who tells at the very start that, if she messes up, she will go to jail. In the presence of a resident. I sure would be happy if I knew a criminal is taking care of my daily needs. So would my family. Is this even possible from the legal perspective? Not sure at all. Then again, with all this film is(n't), I absolutely should not ask for realism and authenticity here. It already starts with Hilker's character being 17 apparently and it is clear that the actress is way older. One must be really stupid to fall for that. Ingo Naujoks is in here too and he is one I generally like quite a bit, but of course he cannot make the script work either and his character is written as poorly as everybody else. At least he has the advantage that his story is not one where the film takes itself truly seriously and he makes it watchable at times. His talk to Speidel's character about the young woman and her lack of dedication and talent at the end (which was clearly meant to encourage the woman to defend her) was also cringeworthy the way it was written. Oh how brilliant, they must be really smart to use reverse psychology here. Okay, what else? The playing and joking around between the two women with the two pillows and water hose later on was difficult to stomach for me. Really embarrassing and a perfect example to show us how the two now really got along well and how Speidel's character was still young at heart. As soon as she was opening her cold cold heart, that is. But Hilker's character helps her with that. Oh what great chemistry these two have. The entire idea of how they grew closer felt as forced as predictable. And the happy ending was also as expected as forced with Speidel's character being ready for romance with the twon hall guy as well as the bad influence from these other kids out of the young woman's life and the two women at the center of the story still living together and getting along better than ever before. Okay that is all. Just one final example from late in the film how the dialogue writing in here was especially bad and I am talking about the "the aunt is to blame" when Speidel's character talks about herself as if she was somebody else to defend her niece and make sure that she herself is blamed and not the young woman. That courtroom speech (also what follows) was really in a nutshell all that is wrong with this movie. So full of itself despite the complete absence of talent. I give it a definite thumbs-up and highly encourage you to keep a great deal of distance to this one. Absolutely not recommended. Oh and I was just about to write that I am surprised Hilker plays a lead in a movie here in what was her very first film appearance ever, but I do not remember her at all from anything else, so I thought she was at best playing supporting characters in Inga Lindström movies these days and then I see she plays a recurring character on "The Walking Dead" now??? What? Really? Okay, that was surprising, even if the show is probably clearly past its peak. I just hope she got better since 2010, even if the script here is also massively to blame for how embarrassing (all about) her character turned out. Anyway, this surprising inclusion on American television does not make this film from ten years ago any better. Skip at any cost.
