"Das beste Stück vom Braten" is a German television film from 2016, so this one is getting closer to its 5th anniversary. Actually it aired in April, so it is almost exactly a year now. The director is Michael Rowitz and the screenplay is by Thomas Kirdorf, Guy Meredith and Annette Simon. Really shocking to see so many writers here, but then the film turns out this bad really. Horrible, in fact. They must be all completely talented and looking at their specific bodies of work, I cannot say I am surprised at all. The only one from the trio (and we can in fact include director Rowitz too) whose body of work does not suck completely is Meredith, but his filmography is still pretty weak, just not as low as evverybody else's. I just wonder how Meredith ended up working on German projects with how long he has worked on Englishh-language projects. Oh well, maybe they finally realized that he was no good. Anyway, what is most devastating here is probably how the director and writers were all really experienced when they made this film and yet they came up with something like this, were apprently completely incapable of seeing the mess the others created and added further to it. The outcome is this 1.5-hour travesty. And it is not only a very bad film, it is also pretty misleading, at least if we look at the way how it is represented here on imdb. First of all, the title makes almost no sense because the cooking references in this film are extremely random and do not only not add quality, but add literally nothing. The male central character could really have worked in almost every other area of profession and it would have made no difference at all story-wise with minor changes to the script. Yet they act as if it was crucial by including this little play on words in the title. The same explanatiion can really be given when it comes to the photo here, which was apparently an official promo picture and it was a really bad choice to be picked as such. One reason is again that they act as if this cooking story was far more crucial than it actually is and the second reason is that Herbert Knaup, the man you see on the right, is almost never in this movie at all and still they imply he is co-lead. The only real lead here is Fritz Karl and if there is any co-lead in here, then it is Christina Hecke, but I shall get to her later. And finally, another misleading aspect here is the cast list because it has Karl as seventh credit only (and Hecke as fifth). Very inaccurate. Minor supporting players like Fleischer are listed earlier and it just makes no sense. And the first credit is Martin Brambach, an actor I actually like (a lot in fact), but he also does not have too many scenes or material to make an impact here. Sad enough instead that he even agreed to appear in this mess.
Okay, I mentioned Karl already. I must say I liked him for quite a while if I remember correctly, but really the more I see from the Austrian actor, the more I must say that I probably overrated him and not just a little bit. The only positive thing I can kinda say now is that he probably is still not as bad as his significant other in life. That one is namely really bad, so about on the same level as Hecke. You can always say the script made it really difficult for actors here to make an impact, but she managed the impossible to actually make her lines and scenes even worse than they already were because of the script and with that spectacular "achievement", she is pretty much the only one from the cast here and stands out in the most negative manner possible. This is especially serious because she is almost the only actress in this film. One of the restaurant employees is also female, but she also has virtually no material to shine, so in terms of female actors, Hecke is the one who carries it all. And as a consequence also the one who turns it into a big mess. There are many examples. One that stayed in the mind especially negatively is the scene when she paints all these hearts on her sheet while her class is writing a test and she does not even recognize how every single student is cheating one way or the other. So you could basically say that her character is as bad of a teacher as she is as an actress. And it would be a really accurate description. I could list a dozen more scenes and examples, but let's just say that her lack of talent is visible from beginning to end really. Her line delivery (even on those rare occasions when her lines did not suck completely) is absolutely horrible. Very bad timing as well. Now, away from her and back to the film as a whole. Actually, the inclusion of Brambach and Knaup made me curious here and I hoped this could be better. But like I said already, both have almost no screen time and how Knaup is shown on the promo picture is extremely deceitful. His character was also written very poorly. Brambach's was written a little better or at least the actor made it better and he is somewhat entertaining as always within his limited screen time. No other actor could have made this line about taking a **** as funny as he did I am sure. Just give the man his toilet time! Okay, now before I finish my review, I want to mention two specific idea from the screenplay where the writers really messed up in terms of coincidence, something that sadly happens all the time when it comes to German films. The first example would be the fact that the female student in the class is actually a major character's daughter. The second would be that Knaup is actually a major female character's father. One would be already pretty unrealistic. Both of them are a massive insult to the audience and if you are dumb enough to see these as quality are not see how flawed these ideas (and the film in general), then I am not sure there is any hope left for you. Of course, the way in which the female student talks to her teacher and later on to the teacher's love interest are cringeworthy as well. The writing and the execution. I hope this child actress takes another career path. Oh yeah, by the way, big surprise I'm sure: The forced happy ending with which all is solved right away out of nowhere is also nothing to be proud of, but this is once again something that happens with so many other small screen releases here as well. Screw realism and creativity and quality. Just make sure everybody is happy again, so the dumb in the audience are as well. An abomination. This film as a whole. Highly not recommended.
Okay, I mentioned Karl already. I must say I liked him for quite a while if I remember correctly, but really the more I see from the Austrian actor, the more I must say that I probably overrated him and not just a little bit. The only positive thing I can kinda say now is that he probably is still not as bad as his significant other in life. That one is namely really bad, so about on the same level as Hecke. You can always say the script made it really difficult for actors here to make an impact, but she managed the impossible to actually make her lines and scenes even worse than they already were because of the script and with that spectacular "achievement", she is pretty much the only one from the cast here and stands out in the most negative manner possible. This is especially serious because she is almost the only actress in this film. One of the restaurant employees is also female, but she also has virtually no material to shine, so in terms of female actors, Hecke is the one who carries it all. And as a consequence also the one who turns it into a big mess. There are many examples. One that stayed in the mind especially negatively is the scene when she paints all these hearts on her sheet while her class is writing a test and she does not even recognize how every single student is cheating one way or the other. So you could basically say that her character is as bad of a teacher as she is as an actress. And it would be a really accurate description. I could list a dozen more scenes and examples, but let's just say that her lack of talent is visible from beginning to end really. Her line delivery (even on those rare occasions when her lines did not suck completely) is absolutely horrible. Very bad timing as well. Now, away from her and back to the film as a whole. Actually, the inclusion of Brambach and Knaup made me curious here and I hoped this could be better. But like I said already, both have almost no screen time and how Knaup is shown on the promo picture is extremely deceitful. His character was also written very poorly. Brambach's was written a little better or at least the actor made it better and he is somewhat entertaining as always within his limited screen time. No other actor could have made this line about taking a **** as funny as he did I am sure. Just give the man his toilet time! Okay, now before I finish my review, I want to mention two specific idea from the screenplay where the writers really messed up in terms of coincidence, something that sadly happens all the time when it comes to German films. The first example would be the fact that the female student in the class is actually a major character's daughter. The second would be that Knaup is actually a major female character's father. One would be already pretty unrealistic. Both of them are a massive insult to the audience and if you are dumb enough to see these as quality are not see how flawed these ideas (and the film in general), then I am not sure there is any hope left for you. Of course, the way in which the female student talks to her teacher and later on to the teacher's love interest are cringeworthy as well. The writing and the execution. I hope this child actress takes another career path. Oh yeah, by the way, big surprise I'm sure: The forced happy ending with which all is solved right away out of nowhere is also nothing to be proud of, but this is once again something that happens with so many other small screen releases here as well. Screw realism and creativity and quality. Just make sure everybody is happy again, so the dumb in the audience are as well. An abomination. This film as a whole. Highly not recommended.
