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For her 35th wedding anniversary, Barbara Weller would like to fulfill a dream: a trip to the sunny lavender fields in Provence. Now that the kids are out of the house, it could finally be time. However, her husband Karl refuses to let her dream come true. So Barbara does what has long been routine in her joyless marriage: She quietly withdraws. Unexpectedly, however, French savoir-vivre enters her entrenched life. By chance, Barbara ends up in a community college course where Alexander teaches the language in an unconventional way - in cafés, at boules or at a picnic. Mehmet, Richard, Simon and Miriam meet there, all of whom want to learn at a hurry. Their teacher not only teaches them vocabulary, but above all how to assert themselves in French. The daily meetings that she goes to secretly set things in motion for Barbara: She notices that the others are also struggling with problems and opens up to new friendships. Her family soon wonders why mom is thriving. The desire to finally take her life into her own hands germinates in Barbara.

Mother is fed up and so am I. With this movie, that is.

&quot;Mutter reicht&#39;s jetzt&quot; or &quot;Bienvenue in meinem neuen Leben&quot; or &quot;Was wir für möglich halten&quot; is a German television movie that premiered back in 2016, so not too long anymore until it has its 5th anniversary. Director Tiefenbacher and writer Kolditz were both already pretty established and experienced filmmaker at that point, even if especially Tiefenbacher is a good example of how quantity does not equal quality. There are many weak films in both their bodies of work, Kolditz&#39;s is still slightly more tolerable. Maybe this amount of experience is the reason why many pretty famous and successful actors appeared in this 1.5-hour film. Admittedly it must be said that especially the younger cast members like Wagner and Hasanovic were less successful back then than they are today and there would have been no way for one of them to host the German Film Awards for example. Still pretty good casting nonetheless. However, the likes of Stötzner, Wittenborn and Horwitz are actors that most filmmakers would be happy to have in their movies. I myself am especially a fan of Wittenborn and I was glad to see him here. However, this film is at the same time really good evidence how even the best cast cannot save a movie if the script offered to them is not even worth the paper on which it is printed. This is the case here. Still it needs to be said that the actors are not free of criticism. They did not only not elevate the material, but nobody forced them to star in a film like this. One I have not mentioned yet is lead actress Ulrike Krumbiegel. I have heard the name and I slightly recognize the face (a bit like Huppert, maybe that is why she plays in this movie about the French language) and I think I have seen her in other stuff and that this is by far not the only horrendous movie she has appeared in. She is especially bad here, maybe the only cast member, also due to her excessive screen time, who makes the screen play even look worse than it already is. Takes a special (lack of) talent for that.<br/><br/>Now as for the story, it&#39;s just something you see so often on German television and almost always it is fake. We have a woman, who is a really kind and caring person (at least we are supposed to believe she is), but she does not get the approval and praise she deserves. Not even close. Not from her daughter, not from her husband. From nobody. Until she joins a French language course. This is where the issues start already. Just take the way how she joins said course. Somebody left a sheet at the café next door where they put in all the data to join said course. The female protagonist finds it and goes there to bring the sheet back. Oh I should not forget the waited from said café who gives this information to Krumbiegel&#39;s character. She only had two lines, but was so bad that it almost overshadowed the entire movie. I have no idea what they were thinking there, but if there is any evidence that you also need some acting talent, even for such a minor character, then this woman proved that she hasn&#39;t got any. Literally, they could have picked and actual waitress for this role and it would not have turned out worse. Maybe she actually is/was a waitress. I just hope that whatever she does today, it is not acting. This conversation followed briefly after the female protagonist met her daughter at said café and the ways in which they display how the daughter really only cares about her mother&#39;s money, but not about her life was so cringeworthy to watch. The epitome of a shallow movie and I feel bad for everybody who falls for this scam in how they were trying to evoke emotion in the sense that we should feel sympathy for Krumbiegel&#39;s character. Especially the hug motion. Which made no sense at all because the daughter hugs her mother later on as if it as nothing. The truth is Krumbiegel&#39;s character is not likable at all. I mean so dumb she is lying about her husband all the time that she is having physiotherapy or something like that instead of just saying the truth. And it felt oh so not believable when it actually comes out where she really is and how her husband acts in the most exaggerated manner as if she was having an affair with another guy or so. I just could not take it anymore when she says goodbye to her new friends in French. Complete nonsense. At the end though, of course there is a happy ending and the daughter and even more so the husband beg for forgiveness because they finally realized int he absence of their wife/mother, how much they need and how amazing she really is. Cringeworthy stuff. Again I can only say I feel bad for people who see a strong female lead character in this movie or a film that empowers women. The opposite is the case because of the poor writing. There are so many examples I cannot mention them all. Just another: Take the scene when she sings while sleeping the song she heard in the group the previous day. Or there is another cringeworthy scene when she is in bed. About a dream or so I think. I already forgot and I am pretty glad I did.<br/><br/>Anyway, now let&#39;s take a look at the study group. I had higher hopes there because I already said I like Wittenborn quite a bit and I am also not opposed to Horwitz, Wagner and Hasanovic. No idea though who Michael Kranz is and why he was equal to these other cast members in this movie here. Anyway, the start was okay with Horwitz&#39;s character posing as a student and also that the idea of a potential romance between Krumbiegel&#39;s and Wittenborn&#39;s as well as Wagner&#39;s and Hasanovic&#39;s characters would lead nowhere. But that is the only positive thing I can say. I mean the entire premise how the female lead gets accepted into said group out of nowhere is an insult to the audience and you really need to sitch off your bains entirely to see any quality in this film. Horwitz was really a bad joke too. It felt as if he channeled his poor man&#39;s Jack Nicholson from &quot;Anger Management&quot; at times with his bizarre teaching techniques, his smug grin, his lies (even more stupid though how Hasanovic&#39;s character goes all mental on one occasion about these lies) and also eventually how he sits there in the room and meditates when everybody knows he is a complete scam. I am sure this was included for comedic reasons, but it was so bad. Of course, at that point the group already loved him and refused to take the exam without him in charge. When they then insult the female teacher in the French language with all the stuff they learnt was when this film really hit rock bottom. And how dare they use Binoche&#39;s name in this movie to show us not everything was a lie. Still the (French) music included in here was pretty decent most of the time, but of course this has nothing to do with the film from a creative perspective and if i was Binoche or one of the singers of said songs, I would sue them to have my material removed from this garbage film. Sorry if I sound harsh, but it is that bad really. Each of the characters get their pseudo important story too obviously. The young guy who is a homosexual, but cannot live his love in public because of his family who would no longer want contact. Of course, his lover comes right to the group to let everybody know. Inclkuding us. The young woman who has a child in Africa. hat the hell??? The older man who struggles with the relationship to his dad that he says is dead in fact, which is a lie. And Kranz&#39;s character&#39;s story as well with his partner, which was not as over the top as all the others, but therefore entirely forgettable. They were really never striking the right notes in this movie. One thing from the big general perspective I struggled ith as the idea of the students so quickly getting along with each other well and becoming friends. I mean look at the aggression from one character early on, look at the age differences, look at the cultural and financial differences. It just makes no sense. It never would have worked like this in real life. This film clearly relies on the idea that &quot;Fack ju Göhte&quot; was a huge success here in Germany, also the sequels, and maybe they could get some of these movies&#39; fans to watch this one here as well with a similar premise. Not sure if it worked out, but the good news is they did not make a sequel. Thank God. This one here is already one too many. I highly recommend you to skip the watch and give it a crushing thumbs-down, also because it dares to take itself so seriously with the lessons it gives us on acceptance, tolerance and overcoming one&#39;s struggles. They had no right to elaborate on these subjects at all with how they lack talent completely. The outcome is as bland and shallow as it gets. It was probably no coincidence this film aired (at least) three times in the last 48 hours because it is Mother&#39;s Day here in Germany, but there is no worse gift to give to your mother than watching this movie with her. Skip at any cost! And that comes from somebody who really likes the French language.

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Mutter reicht's jetzt

Mother is fed up and so am I. With this movie, that is.

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