Wer aufgibt ist tot

Bjarne Mädel is the go-to guy in Germany now for more complex comedic characters. In this made-for-TV-movie he is the washed-up, but arrogant salesman Lohmann. The basic plot is simple: when he picks up a mysterious hitch-hiker, things turn bad for him soon... his car crashes and he finds himself in a ghost like state while his body is in a coma. When he learns that his wife has to decide to pull the plug and seems to be very eager to do it, he uses his new ability to travel back in time to desperately set his former life straight regarding his job and his family...

This movie borrows its plot from a lot of fantasy movies, like "Groundhog day" and others... It could have been a nice little dark comedy, but it only works like one for the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the script takes the characters way too serious and we follow Lohmann exploring every corner of his sad life until it falls nearly into a "tearjerker" atmosphere. Besides Mädel with an usually good performance it has a mediocre cast, especially Friederike Kemptner who plays a guardian angel character with a little sadistic streak is pretty annoying.

After all, its just a made-for-TV movie, but the basic idea is not bad and it could have been handled better.