"Der letzte schöne Tag" or "The Last Fine Day" is a German movie that premiered back in 2011 at festivals before being released as a small screen movie in very early 2012, so this one is a bit over 5 years old. It runs for under 90 minutes and it is perhaps the most known career effort for director Johannes Fabrick and writer Dorothee Schön, maybe also their most successful as the awards attention for it was fairly massive. This mostly refers to lead actor Wotan Wilke Möhring who is in the center of it all as he plays a man, a father of 2, whose wife suffered from depression and decided to commit suicide. This is the beginning of the film already, so it's never about if she does it or why she does it, but that she does it and how her man, children and parents deal with the situation.
It is a fairly depressing film at times, but that is of course a given given the subject here. In my opinion, it felt very authentic and real most of the time. I could have done without the breakdown scene at the funeral as it did not fit the film's style in my opinion, but that is just subjective of course. Overall, the good is definitely more frequent than the bad and this includes all production values, acting, writing, direction etc. Möhring also proves here that he is among Germany's finest from his age group and deserves the awards attention he got here. Even big German film buffs like myself will not find too many known names in here: Möhring of course and Koschitz playing a crucial character too whose screen time is obviously limited due to the character's fate. But that's not a problem at all as the cast not carrying big names doesn't mean they are weak or anything. It's good to find films like this one here with all the Tatort mediocrity going on here in Germany and don't even get me started on other German non-movie programs. Things aren't looking strong at all in Germany on the small screen, so it is a delightful surprise to occasionally find films like this one here that have a lot of heart and sincerity in them, even if they are only the exception proving the rule. These 1.5 hours certainly deserve to be seen and if you manage to get a chance to do so, then don't miss out. I give them a thumbs-up.
It is a fairly depressing film at times, but that is of course a given given the subject here. In my opinion, it felt very authentic and real most of the time. I could have done without the breakdown scene at the funeral as it did not fit the film's style in my opinion, but that is just subjective of course. Overall, the good is definitely more frequent than the bad and this includes all production values, acting, writing, direction etc. Möhring also proves here that he is among Germany's finest from his age group and deserves the awards attention he got here. Even big German film buffs like myself will not find too many known names in here: Möhring of course and Koschitz playing a crucial character too whose screen time is obviously limited due to the character's fate. But that's not a problem at all as the cast not carrying big names doesn't mean they are weak or anything. It's good to find films like this one here with all the Tatort mediocrity going on here in Germany and don't even get me started on other German non-movie programs. Things aren't looking strong at all in Germany on the small screen, so it is a delightful surprise to occasionally find films like this one here that have a lot of heart and sincerity in them, even if they are only the exception proving the rule. These 1.5 hours certainly deserve to be seen and if you manage to get a chance to do so, then don't miss out. I give them a thumbs-up.
