The 2009 German comedy "Männerherzen" is a contender for best German film of the year and also one of the best taking all countries into account. Pretty much all bigger parts are played by Germany's acting elite (Schweiger, Ulmen, Uhl, Möhring, Fitz, von Dohnányi...). The only one I was not familiar with is Maxim Mehmet, but he has a respectable body of work too. The characters include a loner who meets a woman, her violent ex-husband, a pop singer, a womanizer, a man about to become a dad with no money at all and a man with last-minute panic shortly before his wedding. "Männerherzen" is Simon Verhoeven's second film as director/writer 8 years after his first. Since 2009, there has only been a sequel to "Männerherzen" in his body of work, so he is obviously not exactly prolific. However, he has done quite a bit of acting work ("Das Wunder von Bern") which is his real passion it seems. He also plays a minor character in this film here. On a side-note, Verhoeven is the son of famous German actress Senta Berger and director Michael Verhoeven (Oscar-nominated "The Nasty Girl").
The ending of "Männerherzen" is fairly dramatic. A man gets thrown in an alligator's compound in a zoo, a pregnant woman is hit by a car, but as this is a comedy, everybody gets out in good health and only with minor injuries given the seriousness of the events. This film manages exactly to reach the right mixture of comedy and drama. Schweiger plays a role that is similar to his usual characters, but it's all good. he does a decent job with it. Wotan Wilke Möhring really impressed me here for the very first time. Glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel for his character at the end, even if it was maybe a tad too surprising for my liking. His character is not really a bad guy, he was just disappointed one time too many. Justus von Dohnányi won a supporting actor award at the German Film Awards for the unique pop musician he plays (great song as well, especially with the children's choir) and Nadja Uhl managed a nomination as well for a much more serious character. The fact that von Dohnányi's and Schweiger's characters carry both fake names show us that there is not much reality in show business. One scene I found funny was when the ruthless record producer says he is shocked what business turns some people into near the end. The irony. And pretty much everybody seems to get a happy ending. Or do they. The (slightly inferior) sequel told us they did not, some of them. Oh well.. it probably was not planned already when they made this.
Stephan Luca and Bastian Pastewka brought some nice humor too with their alpha male / perfect houseman fights. This was particularly interesting as it was uncertain for a long time how Fitz' storyline would go and even with the way it went they turned it 360° in the sequel again. The revelation of Luca's character at the end was a highlight as well. This film has so many funny scenes, the only thing I criticize is how small the guinea-pig cage from Ulmen's character was and that you should never hold these animals alone. Nonetheless, animal activists can watch this too and forgive him in the light of all the other great moments from this film. Very much recommended. Not just another generic romcom. Not at all. And for people from Berlin it is especially worth watching as you will see many locations you have already been like the Alexanderplatz.
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