"Rat mal, wer zur Hochzeit kommt", which menas "Guess who's coming to the wedding" is a German television film from 2012, so not that long anymore until it has its 10th anniversary. The director is Michael Rowitz and he is also one of the two writers here, a really prolific filmmaker over the years, but it wasn't the rule that he also worked on the screenplays of his films. Sometimes he did it and these almost 90 minutes are just one example. When he did it, the story was almost always downright bad and this is definitely true for this film here as well, so I am positive that he is more to blame for the negative outcome here than his co-writer Mathias Lösel. The cast is certainly not too shabby, better than perhaps for 90% of other small screen releases here in Germany. This mostly has to do with two names, namely Suzanne von Borsody and Henry Hübchen. Yes their characters were also written as poorly as it gets, but here and they they manage to make them slightly watchable at least. Here and there I felt as if they almost had a chuckle about ho poor the writing was. There was one moment in particular when I felt like that, namely the one when the two are looking at their characters' daughter receiving a wedding proposal. The disbelief in their faces certainly also had to do with this proposal, but I felt, even if they probably won't admit it, that it also had to do with the ridiculousness of the entire moment. I also think that SvB's "No. No. No. No. No. No." was initially meant in a serious manner, but the actress surely gave it a lighter note and that saved the ridiculous scene to some extent. One who did not get anything of this at all and acted as if everything in this film was supposed to be real, authentic and meant in a way that it could also happen in real life is lead actress Jasmin Schwiers. She is horrible really in every film she is in and this one here is certainly no exception. To me she feels like an incredibly untalented version of Anna Maria Mühe. These two resemble each other physically a bit I think. But I still feel that even saying it like this, it is still an insult to Mühe. But let me assure you: Schwiers was downright bad in every single scene she was in during this film, so almost every scene really. Of course, you can say as an excuse that the script was really poor but yeah, other actors managed to make it look weak (and not horrible) here and there too, but Schwiers really made things even worse constantly because how much over the top she went. Constantly really. Even in less significant moments when she talks to her partner's brother. As for the partner, he is played by Ludwig Trepte, another fairly known actor here in Germany and I think he is also not really talented, but seeing him next to Schwiers (with whom he had no chemistry at all by the way) he really felt like Al Pacino to be honest. Yes, she was this bad. As for the brother I just mentioned, that one is played by Karim Cherif, so clearly not a Croat and it was extremely obvious that he originated from an entirely different area of the world. They weren't even trying. And definitely not only on this occasion, but on many others too. You can literally feel your brain cells die while watching this film. In big crucial moments, but also tiny moment like when Schwiers' character tells her man to only check out the guys when they are at a party. And of course, Trepte's character says nothing as a response. But why would he? It is ARD Degeto after all, the production company that only makes films in which men exist to a) be utter scum and treat their loving caring female partners like crap or b) blindly follow everything their female partners tell them and make them 100% happy while not having a life at all basically.
Let me say a few more words about the two older cast members, those I mentioned earlier because they are way above the rest here and accurately also credited first and second although their characters' daughter is much more in the center of the story: They also have their horrible moments unfortunately and not even the greatest actor on the planet could have made some of these scenes work. The best example is when they are shown together at the very end and they kiss again and tell each other that they never filed the divorce papers back in the day decades ago when they broke up because deep down obviously they were still really in love with each other. Always have been, always will be. Really stupid honestly and I feel genuinely sorry for people who think this was sweet or anything or meant to be etc. They also have their weak moment individually, von Borsody more than Hübchen. It all starts really messy and I genuinely wonder why she even accepted the role. I am referring to her first conversation with Schwiers' character where she keeps being mean to her daughter in the most disrespectful manner implying men have never been interested in her etc. Could really not think of a less talented way they could have introduced this mother character to us. Also what immediately comes to mind is how inferior Schwiers is in every situation in terms of range when she interacts with von Borsody. This is at its most obvious when she even stands up to her mother somehow. Back to SbV: The way how she behaves early on, there would have been no way in reality that she really goes to have frequent contact with her daughter again, agrees to meet the new man in her life and his parents as well. Let alone, her (ex-)husband. Yeah she still loved him and never sent the papers with how she acts towards him in their first scene. Shameful to see actually talented actors reduced to nonsense character like this. And please don't tell me it was all about character development for von Borsody's role here. These two writers would not recognize convincing character development if it slapped them in the face, let alone be capable of creating characters with depth and transformations themselves. Really nothing makes sense. This also includes the final drama when we are supposed to believe the groom has an affair with another woman. Yeah sure, he does if he moves in with his girlfriend after three months and, also after three months, proposes to her. There was never any doubt at all that it was just a misunderstanding. But the way how they solved it with the "Croat" brother actually seeing this woman, but he could not open up about it because of her background is just a real insult in the face of everybody who watches this film. Yes they actually took themselves seriously with everything they presented in here. Unreal. No matter which perspective you take here: If you understand anything about (quality) movies, then there is only one accurate conclusion, one conclusion that makes sense, namely that this movie we have here is one that is terribly bad from beginning to end, as bad as the cringeworthy title, the name of the director and the inclusion of Degeto and Schwiers imply. Maybe even worse. The only good news is that they never made a sequel and looking at the story and expected forced unrealistic happy ending, it definitely could have happened with a film that shows us how the two couples deal with everyday life after getting back together /getting married. Luckily though, we do not have to sit another 1.5 hours of failure. Fat thumbs-down for this movie here. Highly not recommended. On a final side note, I was also baffled how they really managed the almost impossible to not even have Croatia look beautiful as a large part of the film is set in this country and was also filmed there. So yeah, everybody failed here, not just the cast, director and writers, but also everybody else from the crew. A true abomination. Congrats, my fellow German citizens, on being forced by ARD etc. to pay for films like this one. Also so funny how they kept talking about all the consonants in Trepte's character's name and turned this into a bit of a running gag. Sigh.
Let me say a few more words about the two older cast members, those I mentioned earlier because they are way above the rest here and accurately also credited first and second although their characters' daughter is much more in the center of the story: They also have their horrible moments unfortunately and not even the greatest actor on the planet could have made some of these scenes work. The best example is when they are shown together at the very end and they kiss again and tell each other that they never filed the divorce papers back in the day decades ago when they broke up because deep down obviously they were still really in love with each other. Always have been, always will be. Really stupid honestly and I feel genuinely sorry for people who think this was sweet or anything or meant to be etc. They also have their weak moment individually, von Borsody more than Hübchen. It all starts really messy and I genuinely wonder why she even accepted the role. I am referring to her first conversation with Schwiers' character where she keeps being mean to her daughter in the most disrespectful manner implying men have never been interested in her etc. Could really not think of a less talented way they could have introduced this mother character to us. Also what immediately comes to mind is how inferior Schwiers is in every situation in terms of range when she interacts with von Borsody. This is at its most obvious when she even stands up to her mother somehow. Back to SbV: The way how she behaves early on, there would have been no way in reality that she really goes to have frequent contact with her daughter again, agrees to meet the new man in her life and his parents as well. Let alone, her (ex-)husband. Yeah she still loved him and never sent the papers with how she acts towards him in their first scene. Shameful to see actually talented actors reduced to nonsense character like this. And please don't tell me it was all about character development for von Borsody's role here. These two writers would not recognize convincing character development if it slapped them in the face, let alone be capable of creating characters with depth and transformations themselves. Really nothing makes sense. This also includes the final drama when we are supposed to believe the groom has an affair with another woman. Yeah sure, he does if he moves in with his girlfriend after three months and, also after three months, proposes to her. There was never any doubt at all that it was just a misunderstanding. But the way how they solved it with the "Croat" brother actually seeing this woman, but he could not open up about it because of her background is just a real insult in the face of everybody who watches this film. Yes they actually took themselves seriously with everything they presented in here. Unreal. No matter which perspective you take here: If you understand anything about (quality) movies, then there is only one accurate conclusion, one conclusion that makes sense, namely that this movie we have here is one that is terribly bad from beginning to end, as bad as the cringeworthy title, the name of the director and the inclusion of Degeto and Schwiers imply. Maybe even worse. The only good news is that they never made a sequel and looking at the story and expected forced unrealistic happy ending, it definitely could have happened with a film that shows us how the two couples deal with everyday life after getting back together /getting married. Luckily though, we do not have to sit another 1.5 hours of failure. Fat thumbs-down for this movie here. Highly not recommended. On a final side note, I was also baffled how they really managed the almost impossible to not even have Croatia look beautiful as a large part of the film is set in this country and was also filmed there. So yeah, everybody failed here, not just the cast, director and writers, but also everybody else from the crew. A true abomination. Congrats, my fellow German citizens, on being forced by ARD etc. to pay for films like this one. Also so funny how they kept talking about all the consonants in Trepte's character's name and turned this into a bit of a running gag. Sigh.
