"Wunschkind" is a German television film from 2012, so not that long anymore until this one has its tenth anniversary. Maybe it happened already, depending on when you read this review of mine. The director is Stephan Meyer and I will spare you the Twilight pun here. He is in his 70s now and seems to be retired as he has not come up with anything new in half a decade. Well-deserved perhaps as he has been in the industry since the early 1970s already. Sadly his body of work really is not a revelation and seems to be much more quantity than quality overall, especially looking at what he did during the last decade of his professional life in the new millennium. Some really not amazing films included there and that is the most gentle way out there to put it. Anyway, he has also sometimes written his own screenplays, but not most of the time, so it is no surprise that we have a writer on board here and that would be Jacqueline Tillmann. She is considerably younger apparently, started working much later, namely in the 1990s and given the fact that 25 years have passed since then too, she really has not been the most prolific unless there are many projects missing here on imdb that she has been a part of. She is still active and working now in 2020 though. As a producer, however. This has always been her main profession and this 1.5-hour film we got here is one of only two movies (plus a few television episodes) where she was in charge of the screenplay. As for the cast, I would say it is fairly average. Some familiar faces, but not too many. German film buffs have maybe come across Julia Brendler on other occasions and Martin Feifel is maybe the most famous cast member, even if his role is really held back to not interfere too much with the trio of females here. Definitely a female-centered film. Despite the male director. Kirsten Block I gotta say Iam somehow not familiar with at all and with the young Carolyn Genzkow something clicked, but I could not really say where I knew her from. The one thing it definitely is not would be "Tatort" where she hasplayed a recurring character now for a while because I think the "Tatort" series is almost always bad. Also don't mistake her young age in this film here for lack of experience. She has been in a lot already before this movie.
Now a few words on story and plot if I may: This can be summarized really quickly. We have a teenager who finds out that her mother is not her biological mother and as a consequence she goes out to find her real mother, which causes a great deal of stress for all three involved here. But as this is a Degeto movie, there is the usual 100% happy end, which may not make a lot of sense or feel particularly realistic, but hey who cares about authenticity. But the worst was maybe away from the main story, namely the action at the hospital. First thing would be the boy having these really strong allergic reactions to nuts. Once and almost twice. His parents must be happy about the professionals working in said hospital I'm sure. So this was really pseudo drama of the worst kind. But what was even worse was the silent boy who, after a car accident, would not move or talk anymore despite no physical injury really. Or nothing too serious at least. It is already a bit cringeworthy how the daughter constantly goes there to see him and talk about her struggles (why is she not doing that on her father's graveside?), but in the end he all of a sudden opens his eyes and starts talking as if nothing happened and he heard and understood everything she said to him over the course of days, if not weeks. Oh my. There are other weak moments like that. For example, I really struggled with Brendler's character's indecisiveness. First she pushes the daughter away. Hours later she wants to see her. Near the end with the ultimate dose of pseudo drama, she pushes her away again, again realizes it was a mistake and drives with the two others to the area where they expect her to be. And this is of course the parachute area. This inclusion did very little for me I must say. It already felt really random with the first scene, but in the end as some kind of dramatic, almost suicidal, conflict, it was just ridiculously poor. What a disappointment. Felt again like pseudo drama. Also how quickly the parents are there with them and how "daddy" (he is not the real father, I guess this was the way they kept him from getting in the way of this all-female movie, Feifel should not have taken the offer to play in this movie because he is better than that) shows up with a special vehicle to help was a bit on the ridiculous side. What I personally found really funny, even if it probably was not meant this way, was how the young man defended himself against the accusations that he made a huge mistake by constantly saying how he saved her life. There was some great unintentional comedy to that. Probably just me. Oh by the way, the title is not too easy to translate. I don't think there is one word in the English language that does the trick, but it basically refers to a child that is the result of a wanted pregnancy. Which the protagonist here certainly is not. Or was not when it came to her original mother 17 years ago, but she kinda is for her non-biological mother. It is quite a pity they messed up in some departments of the story because there are also moments when I quite like the watch here and that was not only due to Genzkow's (and Brendler's) looks. But partially. No, seriously, the story here was nothing really new or fresh (also not for 2012) and has been done many times before and probably frequently better, but I still liked it somehow. There were some fine moments. One I remember is how the camera after the first joyful parachute sequence jumps back hom to her non-biological mother and we see her prepare food for the kitchen, so really the most boring activity compared to what we just saw right before that. No surprise the daughter is not thrilled to be back. I also think they did an alright job with giving shades to the three women overall and it did not feel too fake or staged. But for everything they did right here, sadly they messed up on the same number of occasions I would say, like the pills reference and how the daughter is worried her mother may be taking those again, but at the same time acting slightly suicidal in the end or just carefree you could say. It's a Degeto movie, so of course they kept it light and at best implied tragic things like the father's death. Or the fact that the biological mother was forced to close her business. Maybe temporarily only. We don't find out the details there, but at least this was not also solved out of nowhere in the end like all the faily drama. Okay that is it then. By the way, "Heavy Cross" is not a terrible song, but once is enough. And also the girl was way too good at snooker if she never played before. That is it then. This is better than most of the other (Degeto) stuff you get to see in the afternoon on German television, but this is only because said other stuff is frequently really terrible and this one here is somewhere between weak and mediocre. I suggest you skip the watch. Thumbs-down.
Now a few words on story and plot if I may: This can be summarized really quickly. We have a teenager who finds out that her mother is not her biological mother and as a consequence she goes out to find her real mother, which causes a great deal of stress for all three involved here. But as this is a Degeto movie, there is the usual 100% happy end, which may not make a lot of sense or feel particularly realistic, but hey who cares about authenticity. But the worst was maybe away from the main story, namely the action at the hospital. First thing would be the boy having these really strong allergic reactions to nuts. Once and almost twice. His parents must be happy about the professionals working in said hospital I'm sure. So this was really pseudo drama of the worst kind. But what was even worse was the silent boy who, after a car accident, would not move or talk anymore despite no physical injury really. Or nothing too serious at least. It is already a bit cringeworthy how the daughter constantly goes there to see him and talk about her struggles (why is she not doing that on her father's graveside?), but in the end he all of a sudden opens his eyes and starts talking as if nothing happened and he heard and understood everything she said to him over the course of days, if not weeks. Oh my. There are other weak moments like that. For example, I really struggled with Brendler's character's indecisiveness. First she pushes the daughter away. Hours later she wants to see her. Near the end with the ultimate dose of pseudo drama, she pushes her away again, again realizes it was a mistake and drives with the two others to the area where they expect her to be. And this is of course the parachute area. This inclusion did very little for me I must say. It already felt really random with the first scene, but in the end as some kind of dramatic, almost suicidal, conflict, it was just ridiculously poor. What a disappointment. Felt again like pseudo drama. Also how quickly the parents are there with them and how "daddy" (he is not the real father, I guess this was the way they kept him from getting in the way of this all-female movie, Feifel should not have taken the offer to play in this movie because he is better than that) shows up with a special vehicle to help was a bit on the ridiculous side. What I personally found really funny, even if it probably was not meant this way, was how the young man defended himself against the accusations that he made a huge mistake by constantly saying how he saved her life. There was some great unintentional comedy to that. Probably just me. Oh by the way, the title is not too easy to translate. I don't think there is one word in the English language that does the trick, but it basically refers to a child that is the result of a wanted pregnancy. Which the protagonist here certainly is not. Or was not when it came to her original mother 17 years ago, but she kinda is for her non-biological mother. It is quite a pity they messed up in some departments of the story because there are also moments when I quite like the watch here and that was not only due to Genzkow's (and Brendler's) looks. But partially. No, seriously, the story here was nothing really new or fresh (also not for 2012) and has been done many times before and probably frequently better, but I still liked it somehow. There were some fine moments. One I remember is how the camera after the first joyful parachute sequence jumps back hom to her non-biological mother and we see her prepare food for the kitchen, so really the most boring activity compared to what we just saw right before that. No surprise the daughter is not thrilled to be back. I also think they did an alright job with giving shades to the three women overall and it did not feel too fake or staged. But for everything they did right here, sadly they messed up on the same number of occasions I would say, like the pills reference and how the daughter is worried her mother may be taking those again, but at the same time acting slightly suicidal in the end or just carefree you could say. It's a Degeto movie, so of course they kept it light and at best implied tragic things like the father's death. Or the fact that the biological mother was forced to close her business. Maybe temporarily only. We don't find out the details there, but at least this was not also solved out of nowhere in the end like all the faily drama. Okay that is it then. By the way, "Heavy Cross" is not a terrible song, but once is enough. And also the girl was way too good at snooker if she never played before. That is it then. This is better than most of the other (Degeto) stuff you get to see in the afternoon on German television, but this is only because said other stuff is frequently really terrible and this one here is somewhere between weak and mediocre. I suggest you skip the watch. Thumbs-down.
