"Bis dass der Tod uns scheidet", which means "Till death shall us part", is a German television film from 2008, so this one is already over a decade old, but they are still showing it. It as on tonight. Also looking at the the number of lists here, even if the number of votes is not high, I'd say that the outcome of these 90 minutes is not forgotten. One thing that needs to be noted is that this is not an ARD Degeto production or Regina Ziegler movie, but a film from the Privaten as we say here in Germany, those television channels that finance themselves through commercials and not blackmail (GEZ). So this is a good thing. Sadly, it does not turn this into a better movie, however. But first things first: The screenplay is by Timo Berndt and I can really not say anything positive about him here at all. Looking at his body of work, I see Katie Fforde adaptations and other garbage everywhere. So his inclusion, also as the sole writer, is a safe indicator that here we have a pretty weak movie. The director is Edzard Onneken, mostly known for his work on "Türkisch für Anfänger" I suppose, a project that is pretty famous indeed here in Germany and I assume nobody will be really surprised that in this film we have here you also find several actors that were a part of TfA. I am not a fan of that though, so I also did not recognize these actors, just read it in their imdb profiles. Speaking of the cast, we have Muriel Baumeister at the center of the story. She was in her late 30s when this as made and while I would not say she is a particularly gifted actress, I always thought she is an absolutely stunning beauty, definitely among the hottest under women slightly under the age of 40 back then and most likely also still more attractive than 99.9% of people in their 20s. So at least I could look at something beautiful, if story-wise this film as a disappointment. Not equally beautiful, but also pretty stunning in here is Aylin Tezel and maybe by now she is the most known cast member. People are forgetting about Baumeister I guess, especially the young generation. As for the male guys, Bernhard Schir is in it and he maybe gave the best performance from the bunch channeling the male protagonist (played by Böhm if I remember correctly) in Fassbinder's Martha. Had everybody (especially the writer) been as good as Schir, then I'd probably give a thumbs-up here. I also don't think he felt that good because all the others were weak or so. The cast tried its best. Axel Schreiber is one of the TfA guys and there is nothing else to say about him. He resembles Axel Stein though, not just the name. Henning Baum, well I have never been a fan and I thought "Der letzte Bulle" was really bad at times, but his work for Sat1 makes it no surprise that he is in here too. He plays the new man in the protagonist's life.
Now I want to talk a bit about the film itself and why I felt it was this bad. It was admittedly a close call for me here between saying that it as weak and saying it was bad, but eventually I have to go for the latter because things got worse and worse. I think the film was best at the beginning. The scene on board the ship were decent, also the dinner and dance scene, although maybe it was a bit much of a coincidence that the young couple was right there to hear what happens to Baumeister's character and that it was all fake what they saw before from the couple. Then when she decides to disappear and fake her death, it got worse quickly. Be it the cemetery woman who sees her and knows she is alive ending up at Schir's character's place, be it the mess at the customs and how Baumeister's character manages to sneak out thanks to Tezel's. Be it the introduction of Baum's character as some mastermind when it comes to finding people and how he actually found her seconds later. There is so much to pick here where the film sucked and lacked attention to detail. Also at the very end how the bad guy is killed. Actually, the fact that he is killed is already told us through a massive spoiler by the movie's title is a key factor in me determining that this was not just a weak movie, but a horrible movie. I must say I was kinda curious what would happen at the end when they inevitably meet, but with the title giving us the answer already, this took a lot of suspense away. Besides, what is up with the picture here on imdb. The words are different and the people you see there as well. certainly not this movie. But now back to this one: I kinda felt Baum's character would take care of the killing then to protect his new love. He saves her indeed, but is overwhelmed then too, so Baumeister manages to kill her husband and I suppose it had to be her for all she went through. The female audiences will prefer it I suppose. In general, this is more of a movie for females, especially with the exact ending how she sails away and does so without Baum's character. I did not like it. But I equally would not have liked it had they been 100% lovebirds all of a sudden with an unrealistic happy ending. But yeah,the actual one isn't any better. Like come on, she just killed a man. Let police take care of that. She has an amazing witness to tell them it as all to save herself. Okay, what else can I say about this one? There are okay moments, like the one at the flower shop. But there are many more uninspired moments and scenes like the dream sequence or for how long she explores the boat from her childhood or how she is scared every time all out of nowhere. I mean looking at her reaction when Baum's character puts his coat on her, she totally would have been unable to move when her husband actually showed up at the very end. And yet she fights like a lioness. I see there is a DEFA film with a similar background, but less showy and less spectacular, so not sure you could say this one here is based on that 1979 movie. The title is also not 100% the same. And finally, the sob story of Baum's character when he talks about his dead wife (or girlfriend) and their unborn having died too and his own financial success at the same time (very realistic you make the best contract of your life the same day the most important human in your life is killed) feels extremely fake and for the sake of it This was maybe the most cringeworthy moment of the movie. They were going so hard for emotions, but the talent simply wasn't there. When Baum is hiding from Tezel's character and her husband in the film's last third, it is also not good. He just isn't a good actor honestly, even if the writing is of course also to blame. But hey, nobody forced him to accept the role. Overall, one of many reasons why I give this movie a massive thumbs-down. It may not be as bad as most of the stuff Degeto has done for German television, but it also isn't considerably better, just minimally better, which still means failure territory. Watch something else instead.
Now I want to talk a bit about the film itself and why I felt it was this bad. It was admittedly a close call for me here between saying that it as weak and saying it was bad, but eventually I have to go for the latter because things got worse and worse. I think the film was best at the beginning. The scene on board the ship were decent, also the dinner and dance scene, although maybe it was a bit much of a coincidence that the young couple was right there to hear what happens to Baumeister's character and that it was all fake what they saw before from the couple. Then when she decides to disappear and fake her death, it got worse quickly. Be it the cemetery woman who sees her and knows she is alive ending up at Schir's character's place, be it the mess at the customs and how Baumeister's character manages to sneak out thanks to Tezel's. Be it the introduction of Baum's character as some mastermind when it comes to finding people and how he actually found her seconds later. There is so much to pick here where the film sucked and lacked attention to detail. Also at the very end how the bad guy is killed. Actually, the fact that he is killed is already told us through a massive spoiler by the movie's title is a key factor in me determining that this was not just a weak movie, but a horrible movie. I must say I was kinda curious what would happen at the end when they inevitably meet, but with the title giving us the answer already, this took a lot of suspense away. Besides, what is up with the picture here on imdb. The words are different and the people you see there as well. certainly not this movie. But now back to this one: I kinda felt Baum's character would take care of the killing then to protect his new love. He saves her indeed, but is overwhelmed then too, so Baumeister manages to kill her husband and I suppose it had to be her for all she went through. The female audiences will prefer it I suppose. In general, this is more of a movie for females, especially with the exact ending how she sails away and does so without Baum's character. I did not like it. But I equally would not have liked it had they been 100% lovebirds all of a sudden with an unrealistic happy ending. But yeah,the actual one isn't any better. Like come on, she just killed a man. Let police take care of that. She has an amazing witness to tell them it as all to save herself. Okay, what else can I say about this one? There are okay moments, like the one at the flower shop. But there are many more uninspired moments and scenes like the dream sequence or for how long she explores the boat from her childhood or how she is scared every time all out of nowhere. I mean looking at her reaction when Baum's character puts his coat on her, she totally would have been unable to move when her husband actually showed up at the very end. And yet she fights like a lioness. I see there is a DEFA film with a similar background, but less showy and less spectacular, so not sure you could say this one here is based on that 1979 movie. The title is also not 100% the same. And finally, the sob story of Baum's character when he talks about his dead wife (or girlfriend) and their unborn having died too and his own financial success at the same time (very realistic you make the best contract of your life the same day the most important human in your life is killed) feels extremely fake and for the sake of it This was maybe the most cringeworthy moment of the movie. They were going so hard for emotions, but the talent simply wasn't there. When Baum is hiding from Tezel's character and her husband in the film's last third, it is also not good. He just isn't a good actor honestly, even if the writing is of course also to blame. But hey, nobody forced him to accept the role. Overall, one of many reasons why I give this movie a massive thumbs-down. It may not be as bad as most of the stuff Degeto has done for German television, but it also isn't considerably better, just minimally better, which still means failure territory. Watch something else instead.
