"Meine Tochter und der Millionär" is a German television movie from 2009, so this one has its 10th anniversary this year and like the vast majority of German small screen releases it runs for 1.5 hours approximately, slightly under in fact. I won't go too much into detail about director Meyer and writers Limmer and Uhlenbruch because they have not worked on anything really famous, but still while they were very prolific with television projects, you also find the occasional big screen release in their bodies of work. Now back to this one here: You could say that in the widest sense it is a Romeo and Juliet story line, even if the families are not really enemies or so, but they come from different circles of society when it comes to the financial background. The man's family is really rich, the girl's not so much. Her dad is working as a garbageman and there are many references about that throughout the film, also because it starts with him at work and we see that on several occasions too that he is in his car, frequently with other people. There are also some references about class conflict, but really it's so on a level where you never take it seriously from a dramatic perspective, which is alright because this film never wants to be. At least that was how I felt. So it is way more about the comedy and, to a lesser extent, the romance as well. His father carries a very big name. We don't find out too much else about him really and lets be honest the material the actor was given here was not exactly challenging. But I still liked him because Ulrich Noethen is just always good. I don't like Jan Fedder that much, but he is fine too I guess. Television is just more his thingey, so no surprise that he got the bigger role here and not Noethen. The rest of the cast are solid too I suppose, all of them really established actors here in Germany and maybe if you are into German films, you will recognize some of their faces. But sadly, they cannot really make the script work here either. I did not like Güldenberg especially anyway. He felt like an even less talented Martin Freeman and that scene early on when he cites the paragraph on labor law was utter cringe, admittedly not just him, but also how the scene was written, also with the phone call before that.
Sometimes the film delivers through its charm and also the uniqueness of some of the characters, but the big picture in terms of story just isn't good from the screenplay perspective. I could ignore it for the most part because slightly unrealistic moments like the wedding announcement early on were made up for by better sequences like the football parallel, even if maybe that he was a HSV player was a bit too much too, but at least they werfe not going for the obvious like St. Pauli or when they pick the two representants that they pick Fedder's character immediately or so. However, the one thing I cannot forgive them for was the ending, or lets say the last 10-15 minutes that has the millionaire('s son) marry a woman from a rich Spanish family out of nowhere. This really went against everything from before that. the man would never agree. His parents are not heartless individuals and it seemed they would agree to the wedding with the not-so-rich girl. And then they do that. Now that was really totally pointless and unrealistic creating some pseudo drama although of course we knew he would pick the "right one" eventually right from the altar. And as the Spanish girl was not too into the guy either, she is happy too with being left there unmarried and everybody is basically happy. The garbage truck sequence with the loud singing was also a bit for the simple-minded it felt to me. So yeah, overall the negative is a bit more frequent than the positive here and I must give this film a thumbs-down, even if there are good moments like the comedy or also several Hamburg references. How fitting to see this film today given the fact that I was there yesterday watching the Lion King musical. Anyway, lets not drift apart. Only watch this one if you really like Fedder or maybe if you are really into Hamburg and goofball romantic comdies. It's not a failure where I would say everybody should skip it. Quality-wise pretty much what you could expect from the not so great title. But also not good enough for a positive recommendation. Maybe it would have, had they not messed up this much at the end.
Sometimes the film delivers through its charm and also the uniqueness of some of the characters, but the big picture in terms of story just isn't good from the screenplay perspective. I could ignore it for the most part because slightly unrealistic moments like the wedding announcement early on were made up for by better sequences like the football parallel, even if maybe that he was a HSV player was a bit too much too, but at least they werfe not going for the obvious like St. Pauli or when they pick the two representants that they pick Fedder's character immediately or so. However, the one thing I cannot forgive them for was the ending, or lets say the last 10-15 minutes that has the millionaire('s son) marry a woman from a rich Spanish family out of nowhere. This really went against everything from before that. the man would never agree. His parents are not heartless individuals and it seemed they would agree to the wedding with the not-so-rich girl. And then they do that. Now that was really totally pointless and unrealistic creating some pseudo drama although of course we knew he would pick the "right one" eventually right from the altar. And as the Spanish girl was not too into the guy either, she is happy too with being left there unmarried and everybody is basically happy. The garbage truck sequence with the loud singing was also a bit for the simple-minded it felt to me. So yeah, overall the negative is a bit more frequent than the positive here and I must give this film a thumbs-down, even if there are good moments like the comedy or also several Hamburg references. How fitting to see this film today given the fact that I was there yesterday watching the Lion King musical. Anyway, lets not drift apart. Only watch this one if you really like Fedder or maybe if you are really into Hamburg and goofball romantic comdies. It's not a failure where I would say everybody should skip it. Quality-wise pretty much what you could expect from the not so great title. But also not good enough for a positive recommendation. Maybe it would have, had they not messed up this much at the end.
