"Eine Klasse für sich" is a German television movie that premiered back in November 2019, so it is not even a year old now and still a relatively new film. It seems as if the days if German "Herzkino", i.e. stupid non-realistic romance dramas, seem to be over or almost over as these films were really made so many times back in the last 15-20 years. This is a good thing. But not really if the films that are taking over are stupid unfunny comedy movies with pseudo depth like this one here. First things first though: The director is Christine Hartmann and the script was written by Sebastian Orlac. Both are fairly experienced filmmakers with bodies of work that are not downright bad, but also not particularly good, probably somewhere between weak and mediocre. The outcome of these almost 1.5 hours here is probably among the very worst they have come up with so far. This has mostly to do with the script, but exclusively I'd say. I will mention a few examples and specific scenes and moments and inclusions during which this film was especially bad. The cast includes a handful names that are mildly famous I'd say. Lead actor Hans Löw's career has been on the rise for a while now and here I can see why. He clearly managed to elevate the material here and there, but sadly the material was so low that it does not mean he was great or anything. However, we should not take his decent effort for granted because Alwara Höfels, the one who is the closest to being a female co-lead, managed the exact opposite. She was really bad on several occasions and managed the almost impossible to make the script seem even worse. I knew subtlety has never been her strength, but I did not think she would be this bad. I think if I remember correctly I disliked her quite a bit a long time ago because I saw her give equally bad performances like this one here in other films, but then I saw some movies that included here in which she was kinda alright. Anyway, let's not drift too far away now. Here, she is really, really weak. Still she has probably the biggest name from the cast and maybe that is why they pikced her for the part or also because she appeared in "Fack ju Göhte", a film that was a huge hit and has some parallels to this one here about a group of oddballs sticking together and managing common goals. Finally, Johannas Gastdorf is maybe the third and final cast member that deserves a mention here, but her role is not too significant honestly.
Now as for the story: We have a successful teacher who is liked by the kids and colleagues, but it becomes known that his own school exam report is fake. Luckily, there are no consequences for him. He is not even fired, but just has to really succeed with his A-Levels within a year and then he gets his job back. A great deal of tolerance. If that is realistic, you must decide for yourself. I personally would say this is already enough lack of realism for the entire movie, but honestly this was just the beginning. Things get way worse when the group in which he has to repeat his A-Levels gets together and all that follows afterwards. Be it the bike clash/argument early on between the two main characters, be it Höfels' character guessing out of nowhere that he indeed created a fake report, be it how he meets this Turkish girl randomly at the store. Remember it is a big city! Be it how one member of the group is a former successful football player. Be it how Höfels' character's father is the one about to close the school. And that is really not even everything. It was way too much and literally so exaggerated in terms of lack of authenticity and realism that it felt like a true insult to the audiences. Of course, they also had to come up with the inevitable romance story between the two main characters, with lots of drama how Höfels' character all of a sudden does not want him anymore after their first night together. All pseudo and fake. And surely they would become a couple with how they were constantly arguing early on and did not seem to like each other at all, but yeah I guess the explanation applies here that they simply managed to upset each other immediately because they cared about each other's thoughts immediately. Sorry, I don't know why I am even trying to come up with an explanation here. It is so absurd. What else? Oh yes, the group of course in the perfect idea of a happy ending becomes closer and they constantly help each other out to make sure they succeed with their exams. And if they don't, it's not a tragedy either because they don't need their A-Levels to fulfill their dreams. Or at least their A-Levels are not 100% essential. Oh yeah, the scene with the vain guy at the café who gets rejected by Höfels' character or Höfels' character's dad and his young lover or the toilet lady who loses her home feel also really fake and staged. This film lack authenticity really from every perspective. I cannot come up with any positive aspect here. I thought early on that it would not be this bad, but it did turn out to be a mssive failure. The (unfunny) comedy and forced drama was entirely caused by really unrealistic turns of events. Ah yes, the struggles between father and son are also not anything of quality. The son also was portrayed by a really poor actor I must say. And of course, this story is also easily solved towards the end and everybody is happy. Everybody from the group is even cheering with the boy after he managed to pass his own A-Levels one year later. There was this moment of hesitation where he jokingly implied that he could have failed too, but this moment was also utter cringe before the revelation happened that made everybody happy. Well, all the characters at least and surely also many really simple audience members. So, let me end the review with a little hope here. I genuinely hope they will never make a sequel to this one.. IIt is still fresh enough that it could happen, but please, please don't! Big thumbs-up I have to give this film. Highly not recommended. Painfully bad movie. The best example of how they had no clue what they were doing is the random inclusion of a Pink Flloyd song because it includes the word "teacher". But it had nothing to do with this film whatsoever. The Bon Jovi number was a better choice. There! I finally found something positive. Took me long enough I guess. Keep your distance from this abomination of a film.
Now as for the story: We have a successful teacher who is liked by the kids and colleagues, but it becomes known that his own school exam report is fake. Luckily, there are no consequences for him. He is not even fired, but just has to really succeed with his A-Levels within a year and then he gets his job back. A great deal of tolerance. If that is realistic, you must decide for yourself. I personally would say this is already enough lack of realism for the entire movie, but honestly this was just the beginning. Things get way worse when the group in which he has to repeat his A-Levels gets together and all that follows afterwards. Be it the bike clash/argument early on between the two main characters, be it Höfels' character guessing out of nowhere that he indeed created a fake report, be it how he meets this Turkish girl randomly at the store. Remember it is a big city! Be it how one member of the group is a former successful football player. Be it how Höfels' character's father is the one about to close the school. And that is really not even everything. It was way too much and literally so exaggerated in terms of lack of authenticity and realism that it felt like a true insult to the audiences. Of course, they also had to come up with the inevitable romance story between the two main characters, with lots of drama how Höfels' character all of a sudden does not want him anymore after their first night together. All pseudo and fake. And surely they would become a couple with how they were constantly arguing early on and did not seem to like each other at all, but yeah I guess the explanation applies here that they simply managed to upset each other immediately because they cared about each other's thoughts immediately. Sorry, I don't know why I am even trying to come up with an explanation here. It is so absurd. What else? Oh yes, the group of course in the perfect idea of a happy ending becomes closer and they constantly help each other out to make sure they succeed with their exams. And if they don't, it's not a tragedy either because they don't need their A-Levels to fulfill their dreams. Or at least their A-Levels are not 100% essential. Oh yeah, the scene with the vain guy at the café who gets rejected by Höfels' character or Höfels' character's dad and his young lover or the toilet lady who loses her home feel also really fake and staged. This film lack authenticity really from every perspective. I cannot come up with any positive aspect here. I thought early on that it would not be this bad, but it did turn out to be a mssive failure. The (unfunny) comedy and forced drama was entirely caused by really unrealistic turns of events. Ah yes, the struggles between father and son are also not anything of quality. The son also was portrayed by a really poor actor I must say. And of course, this story is also easily solved towards the end and everybody is happy. Everybody from the group is even cheering with the boy after he managed to pass his own A-Levels one year later. There was this moment of hesitation where he jokingly implied that he could have failed too, but this moment was also utter cringe before the revelation happened that made everybody happy. Well, all the characters at least and surely also many really simple audience members. So, let me end the review with a little hope here. I genuinely hope they will never make a sequel to this one.. IIt is still fresh enough that it could happen, but please, please don't! Big thumbs-up I have to give this film. Highly not recommended. Painfully bad movie. The best example of how they had no clue what they were doing is the random inclusion of a Pink Flloyd song because it includes the word "teacher". But it had nothing to do with this film whatsoever. The Bon Jovi number was a better choice. There! I finally found something positive. Took me long enough I guess. Keep your distance from this abomination of a film.
