"Das Leben ist ein Bauernhof", which literally means "Life is a Farm", or "Die Fischerhäuser" is a German television movie from 2012, so this one is getting closer to its 10th anniversary. Oh yeah, another thing about the title: It reminded me a bit about a German saying that involves the word "Ponyhof". I will not explain it in detail now, but German-speaking audiences sure know what I am talking about and I wonder if those who picked the title had this also on their minds. Or maybe it was just one person who picked the title because the writer and director here is Thomas Kronthaler and it is not too usual for low-profile small screen releases here in my country that one person does both, especially as Kronthaler rarely wrote the scripts for his own movies. Anyway, these 1.5 hours are not the only farm-related movie Kronthaler made back then because one year later he came up with another named "24 Milchkühe und kein Mann". Well I watched that one and it was really really bad. but let's not drift too far away now. This one here may not be as bad as the other, but it is also not exactly a revelation. There are only two slightly famous cast members here, namely Raacke and von Stetten and of course, these two are also playing the central characters here, namely two brothers who could not be any more different. One of them is a successful businessman and the other is an experienced priest. The two do not have much of a connection and so it is no surprise that they have not been in contact for a really long time. However, now in the face of a relative's death (also one they have not seen for years), the are united again. At a farm. This is what the title implies. The two deal with each other and with the deceased's daughter, who plans on taking care of the farm on her own from now on. And also at the same time, they have to deal with themselves because they are also struggling a bit. Well, this applies really only to Raacke's character and it is not surprising because he is more famous than his co-lead. To the extent really that I felt vom Stetten was slightly wasted here. He had a lot of screen time, but no good material to be honest. Raacke's character had his new romance story, the other relationship, the attempts how he tries to help financially etc. There was just a lot more written for his character in terms of quantity and that I found a bit disappointing because I think von Stetten is not a worse actor, maybe even more gifted.
Still these two, with their interactions ith each other and in general, keep this film from becoming a failure. It is mildly entertaining here and there and the reference to "Bio" (I think it is "organic" in English) was also a nice one. Still, there were moments and sequences that did not work at all. I already mentioned the romance parts earlier and these were a mess and felt completely for the sake of it, like in the sense of getting back to one's roots, also in terms of love. The way the plot is depicted here I genuinely wondered why he wasn't even single (Raacke's character I mean) because there was zero passion and chemistry between him and his lover to be honest. Oh I know the answer. They included her to show that the other (new) woman is so much better from every perspective and also that he is actually interested in her. I feel kinda sorry for the actress who had to play the (soon) ex-girlfriend because of how poorly and stereotypically the character was written. Then again, she agreed to play the part, so maybe I should not feel sorry for her, but for everybody who watches this movie. Besides, romance is also failure territory on another occasion and there I am talking about the girl's (soon) significant other. Okay, we hear she was too shy to tell him that she likes him, but we are supposed to believe that she had no problem now doing it in a room packed with other young people? Nah. I don't get why they simply cannot make a movie without romance when it comes to German afternoon television. I mean all the characters, especially the young girl, had enough other stuff going on in their lives anyway. I could mention another 5 examples at least to show how the film hit rock-bottom repeatedly, bit I will just go with one, namely the ending. There we have the pseudo dramatic idea of one character getting into the room where the auction takes place in the last minute literally and of course all turns out well. Also the way how they used the young man's father as a main antagonist was pretty cringeworthy, so we see how friendship and romance are more important than family bonds if the family member does not do the right thing. Tough to stomach here and there. This film definitely did not go out on a high note (even if the simple-minded and easily influences may think so). Overall, the movie is definitely closer to failure territory than to a positive recommendation for me, but eventually it ends up somewhere in-between in the bland area. So my suggestion is that you certainly skip the watch here. It is not a good or recommendabe outcome all in all. Also if you come from or live at a farm yourself, this is not a movie for you because the writing is just so poor overall and the ways in which they tried to get in shades for the characters was really clumsy on the rare occasions that they even tried to do it. Most of the movie is black and white in the most uninspired fashion. Just don't go for it for these almost 1.5 hours are the movie equivalent to damaged goods. By the way, final side note: While I thought Raacke gave an okay performance, I am not sure he was necessarily a good choice physically for a successful entrepreneur. Curcuma rocks though!
Still these two, with their interactions ith each other and in general, keep this film from becoming a failure. It is mildly entertaining here and there and the reference to "Bio" (I think it is "organic" in English) was also a nice one. Still, there were moments and sequences that did not work at all. I already mentioned the romance parts earlier and these were a mess and felt completely for the sake of it, like in the sense of getting back to one's roots, also in terms of love. The way the plot is depicted here I genuinely wondered why he wasn't even single (Raacke's character I mean) because there was zero passion and chemistry between him and his lover to be honest. Oh I know the answer. They included her to show that the other (new) woman is so much better from every perspective and also that he is actually interested in her. I feel kinda sorry for the actress who had to play the (soon) ex-girlfriend because of how poorly and stereotypically the character was written. Then again, she agreed to play the part, so maybe I should not feel sorry for her, but for everybody who watches this movie. Besides, romance is also failure territory on another occasion and there I am talking about the girl's (soon) significant other. Okay, we hear she was too shy to tell him that she likes him, but we are supposed to believe that she had no problem now doing it in a room packed with other young people? Nah. I don't get why they simply cannot make a movie without romance when it comes to German afternoon television. I mean all the characters, especially the young girl, had enough other stuff going on in their lives anyway. I could mention another 5 examples at least to show how the film hit rock-bottom repeatedly, bit I will just go with one, namely the ending. There we have the pseudo dramatic idea of one character getting into the room where the auction takes place in the last minute literally and of course all turns out well. Also the way how they used the young man's father as a main antagonist was pretty cringeworthy, so we see how friendship and romance are more important than family bonds if the family member does not do the right thing. Tough to stomach here and there. This film definitely did not go out on a high note (even if the simple-minded and easily influences may think so). Overall, the movie is definitely closer to failure territory than to a positive recommendation for me, but eventually it ends up somewhere in-between in the bland area. So my suggestion is that you certainly skip the watch here. It is not a good or recommendabe outcome all in all. Also if you come from or live at a farm yourself, this is not a movie for you because the writing is just so poor overall and the ways in which they tried to get in shades for the characters was really clumsy on the rare occasions that they even tried to do it. Most of the movie is black and white in the most uninspired fashion. Just don't go for it for these almost 1.5 hours are the movie equivalent to damaged goods. By the way, final side note: While I thought Raacke gave an okay performance, I am not sure he was necessarily a good choice physically for a successful entrepreneur. Curcuma rocks though!
