Honig im Kopf

I would like to talk about two characters and the way their attitude is being dangerously idealized in the movie:

First of all, Tilda, the small child almost takes over the responsibility of her parents, taking her grandfather to a trip abroad. She witnesses how her grandpa slowly loses the capability of leading his own life and this is simply not something that a child can handle psychologically. For a child to carry such parental responsibilities is being referred to as a severe trauma in psychology and it shouldn't be idealized in a movie. Moreover, when she takes off with her grandpa, interestingly no one ever wonders where she may be and what may happen to them. So instead of being deeply worried for her, Niko and Sarah brush up their sex life. Really?!

Secondly, Sarah, Niko's wife is portrayed as a very unpleasant character and in the movie, this is tied to the fact that she doesn't want her husband's father to live with them. At the end, where the character transforms into an ideal (!) woman, she quits her job to look after Amandus and to spend more time with her daughter. This is nothing but a gender stereotype being reinforced in a very emotionally abusive manner. Again, such experiences have caused and are causing many women in the world to have traumatic experiences when it comes to having a family and wanting to realize themselves.

I was very disappointed to see so many gender stereotypes being reinforced in the movie. The people of this world have endured enough traumas and they should not be idealized in any way, let alone in a movie by Til Schweiger that is guaranteed to reach millions of people.

The best about this German movie who was one of the biggest hits in 2014 are some of the performances. I always thought Hallervorden to be a good actor even in his often unfunny 70ies and 80ies comedies. Jeanette Hain is also good as the antagonist. Schweiger himself has made worse and better movies in the past. In the last years he became notorious for putting his friends and kids in his movies. Same here, but his daughter Emma is at least not as annoying as her elder sister Luna who also gets shoehorned in many of his movies. First off, the movie about a little girl and her grandfather, who has got Alzheimer disease, is just a bit too long. I think this movie could easily be 30 minutes shorter. In my opinion the movie shows quite good what Alzheimer does despite it is not in all details realistic. But Schweiger again ruins the portrayal of his main character by his crude style of humour. Here, for example, the main character Armandus is fond of grabbing tits or pees in the fridge. So you get wrongly the impression this may have not been a good man before he became demented.

I totally agree with Meta Pomieske and other reviewers who gave this movie one star. I lasted 20 min, may be,just could not take it any longer. First of all nothing is realistic in this movie and it is on the edge of being an absurdous one. The girl was seriously overacting in my opinion,her father a talented actor, was underacting, they made an idiot of the senile grandpa. Everything looked and sounded faked and forced. The movie starts with an underage girl traveling by train with a senile old man hugging a soft toy and it is presented as nothing is wrong with it. Then she allegedly overlooks his absence. Give me a break.

What might look overdone at times to me. Is a beautiful depiction of what. It feels like to care for an aging family member.

Maybe for some people this movie seems overdone or is not easy to relate to, but I was spending lots and lots of time as a young man with my grandma when her memory and worldly abilities started to fade, and this movie hits home.

It's not trying to be educational first or change the world but rather display an aspect of life that we almost all go through in one way or another in a touching and entertaining way.

I enjoyed the choice of actors as well as the visual intensity, which made the movie more "real" for me, as supposed to just looking realistic.

A beautifully filmed but ultimately disappointing film. The first hour, watching an utterly clueless couple in complete denial about the mental state of the husband's father isn't funny - it's painful and disturbing. The saving grace is that this is probably how so many people really do try to deal with a loved one with dementia. Apparently no one in the family knows how to look up more information on the Internet about dementia and caregiving. No idea whatsoever as to why the husband stays with the wife, who is completely unsympathetic. The grand-daughter and grandfather are charming - but that no one intervenes when, say, they see this young child removing this old man's pants on a train is just unbelievable. The film is worth watching to explain to someone what dementia can look like, but it is NOT a good film for explaining how to care for someone with such (except to say "Here's what NOT to do.").