"Die Liebe hat das letzte Wort" is a German television film from 2004, so this one is already over 15 years old. The title is not too easy to translate into English because it is not meant verbally or anything. Can you say "Love has the last word"? Or "Love makes the last sound/noise"? I kinda doubt it. It basically means that in the end there is love. The film runs for slightly under 1.5 hours and this it has in common with the vast majority of other small screen releases from my country. The connection to love of course too. This is a German German-language production, even if the company behind it is Graf Film. Then again, they are located in Munich too, just Klaus Graf (not Dominik, who is bad too, just not that bad) is the one behind it and he is from Austria. If you take a look and everything else Graf Film did, especially these many, many Lilly Schönauer adaptations, you already know that you should absolutely not expect the slightest bit of quality. If you take a look at who wrote and directed this film, then the last bit of doubt (if there was any) is also gone for good. Director is Ariane Zeller. She launched her career in the early 90s with the abysmal GZSZ and it seems there is no worse filmography possible for a director than what Zeller did between 2000 and 2010. So this is from her "peak". The writer is Mónica Simon. I wonder if this accent is real or if she just added it to her name to appear slightly interesting because here in Germany we put focus on the "Mo" anyway with this name. But it kinda fitting and perfect really to describe her also from the professional perspective as a screenwriter: Pseudo important while not making an impact at all. What has she worked on over the years? Well, she was still relatively new to the industry when she made this film, so you could say that maybe she just needs some more experience and is not that terrible. But then check out her works and look into the abyss of "Sophie - Braut wider Willen", "Sturm der Liebe" and Rosamunde Pilcher adaptations. Enough said. This women will most likely never in her career be part of a project that could get a positive recommendation from me. She happily takes everybody's GEZ money, but does not deliver one bit of quality. This also applies to Sabine Vitua, who plays the biggest female character in here. And maybe also gives the worst performance from the entire film. The most cringeworthy thing to watch about her is really that she was written as an Italian and I am not sure if the actress herself has Italian blood in her veins, but it doesn't even matter. What is very obvious is that she absolutely did not possess the range or versatility to make these dolce vita moments seem realistic, like when she talks in Italian, uses random Italian words (so fake) or starts singing in the car in the Italian language. That was actually one of the most cringeworthy scenes of the entire film, especially when the boy and man join in. The man is Günther Maria Halmer and I still think it pathetic that, after "Gandhi" and "Sophie's Choice", these are the films that he played in for the second half of his acting career. Then again, nobody forced him to accept and while I kinda like his aura, it makes me difficult to accept him as a remotely talented actor. Role selection is vital. He also just seems to cash in. Ruth-Maria Kubitschek does not have many scenes here, but I also think she is a very overrated actress, so I am glad I do not have to see more from her. The quote with the parallel between a river without water and a man without children was pseudo important enough already. Christian Kohlund is one who is always easy to recognize, even if you don't remember the name. He was wasted too with his role. I will mention it later on. And finally, the child performance comes from Jeremy Mockridge. This young man has actually stayed in acting, also as an adult now. No adult acting obviously, that's not what I meant. I think I have seen him in other stuff lately, but don't really remember and honestly in this one here, his character is so exaggerated and over the top (and this includes both the writing and his performance) that I have zero motivation right now to check out his body of work.
I think child performances are always a good indicator of how strong a movie is because it requires a lot to write a young chraracter credibly in terms of what (s)he says in particular, but also in getting the kid to deliver these lines credibly and realistically. They got it all wrong in both these departments. And in basically every other department too. Be it the idea that the female protagonist has to leave all of a sudden or that she has to leave the boy with Halmer's character, nothing feels authentic and real at all. But what is even worse is her spontaneous decision to quit the job that really felt only there for her to make a deal afterwards with which she agrees to stay not even five minutes later. Crucial decisions rushed in to dumb down the audience. It may sound harsh, but it is the truth here. Absolutely ridiculous. Of course, the kid's father who was supposed to pick up the boy the next day has an accident and ends up in the hospital (how convenient!), the Halmer's character has to deal with the boy a little longer. And these were still the better parts. I was actually glad that Vitua was out of the film and I hoped she would not return until the last five minutes or so, but of course she does, so they can get in the love story between her character and Halmer's that you can read about in the title. By the way, Halmer these days has his very first performance in a Rosamunde Pilcher movie. Yeah, no respect for him, no matter if he watches these films or now. How can he? So with this movie here, it was the key plot that sucked, but also the small moments really, like we have Halmer's character throw away his ice randomly on one occasion. What was up with that? He had to rush to something more important of course and that involves the boy as the two were slowly forming a bond. Apart from that, the usual. In these films, we always have kids run away at some point and this is also the case here and the dramatic search ensues, but as always everything is fine. Also as always, the female suitors in these films have more men interested in them and this is where Kohlund's character comes into play, even if he has also other ambitions. These from the financial/housing perspective result in more fake drama near the end, but of course, again as always, no matter how severe the drama may be and how much everything seems lost, there is always a solution waiting and everybody is having the utmost happy ending. As we see here when the two touch each other as the closing credits roll in. Of course, these are also distinguished people that love white wine and lobster. Oh and the boy only gets a juice or something. How funny! I found the kid annoying, not gonna lie. Then again, with this annoying mother, how couldn't he be? Just take the scene when they make all this noise early on and don't care about the fact that Halmer's character needs quietness becase he has to work and when he shows up and tells them, all he gets is a half-hearted excuse and then they basically laugh about him. Honestly, I wish he would have thrown these two intruders out of the house. But the opposite is the case of course. Take the scenes near the end in which he constantly apologizes to the woman. He has to act needy towards her and always treat her like his queen before she is finally vaguely interested in being with him. Of course, she has no interest in Kohlund's character before that. Okay, I think I made mysellf clear here. This was an absolutely terrible movie. There may have been no Degeto or Regina Ziegler involved with this one, but the quality is the same. If you know a bit about German films, you have heard of those two. Major thumbs-down here. The first decade of the new millennium was really absolutely horrible for German small screen releases and this is one of many examples. Absolutely not recommended.
I think child performances are always a good indicator of how strong a movie is because it requires a lot to write a young chraracter credibly in terms of what (s)he says in particular, but also in getting the kid to deliver these lines credibly and realistically. They got it all wrong in both these departments. And in basically every other department too. Be it the idea that the female protagonist has to leave all of a sudden or that she has to leave the boy with Halmer's character, nothing feels authentic and real at all. But what is even worse is her spontaneous decision to quit the job that really felt only there for her to make a deal afterwards with which she agrees to stay not even five minutes later. Crucial decisions rushed in to dumb down the audience. It may sound harsh, but it is the truth here. Absolutely ridiculous. Of course, the kid's father who was supposed to pick up the boy the next day has an accident and ends up in the hospital (how convenient!), the Halmer's character has to deal with the boy a little longer. And these were still the better parts. I was actually glad that Vitua was out of the film and I hoped she would not return until the last five minutes or so, but of course she does, so they can get in the love story between her character and Halmer's that you can read about in the title. By the way, Halmer these days has his very first performance in a Rosamunde Pilcher movie. Yeah, no respect for him, no matter if he watches these films or now. How can he? So with this movie here, it was the key plot that sucked, but also the small moments really, like we have Halmer's character throw away his ice randomly on one occasion. What was up with that? He had to rush to something more important of course and that involves the boy as the two were slowly forming a bond. Apart from that, the usual. In these films, we always have kids run away at some point and this is also the case here and the dramatic search ensues, but as always everything is fine. Also as always, the female suitors in these films have more men interested in them and this is where Kohlund's character comes into play, even if he has also other ambitions. These from the financial/housing perspective result in more fake drama near the end, but of course, again as always, no matter how severe the drama may be and how much everything seems lost, there is always a solution waiting and everybody is having the utmost happy ending. As we see here when the two touch each other as the closing credits roll in. Of course, these are also distinguished people that love white wine and lobster. Oh and the boy only gets a juice or something. How funny! I found the kid annoying, not gonna lie. Then again, with this annoying mother, how couldn't he be? Just take the scene when they make all this noise early on and don't care about the fact that Halmer's character needs quietness becase he has to work and when he shows up and tells them, all he gets is a half-hearted excuse and then they basically laugh about him. Honestly, I wish he would have thrown these two intruders out of the house. But the opposite is the case of course. Take the scenes near the end in which he constantly apologizes to the woman. He has to act needy towards her and always treat her like his queen before she is finally vaguely interested in being with him. Of course, she has no interest in Kohlund's character before that. Okay, I think I made mysellf clear here. This was an absolutely terrible movie. There may have been no Degeto or Regina Ziegler involved with this one, but the quality is the same. If you know a bit about German films, you have heard of those two. Major thumbs-down here. The first decade of the new millennium was really absolutely horrible for German small screen releases and this is one of many examples. Absolutely not recommended.