"Weniger ist mehr" (not really a great title and the quote it is taken from did not feel significant enough to name the movie after that), which means "less is more", is a German television film from 2013. It runs for approximately 1.5 hours like the big majority of German small screen releases and this one was directed by Jan Ruzicka and written by Georg Heinzen. Looking at their bodies of work, it must be said that my expectations were definitely relatively low and looking at the outcome then, I think this film, even at **/***** only, was better than I expected. This just shows how bad the german film landscape is right now in terms of television films. Sure, if you dig deep enough, you can find an okay or even good movie, but the dominating majority is underwhelming, frequently even on failure territory. This one here is not. It is "only" underwhelming I'd say. This has a bit to do with lead actor Benno Fürmann and as he has also played protagonists in theatrical releases, there is no denying that the cast (through him alone) is above-average for a small screen release. That is it though. My fellow German film buffs will perhaps also recognize co-lead Ulrike C. Tscharre and maybe even the pretty cute Janina Fautz, who plays the protagonists' daughter here and she is enjoying a solid career as well now that she is in her 20s. Palina Rojinski is also in it, but she does not have too much screen time. That is a good chocie actually as she may be a bit of a starlet here in Germany, mostly because of her collaborations with the equally untalented Joko and Klaas, but she is not an actress by any means. This becomes painfully obvious in her final scene in this movie when she elaborates why Fürmann's character cannot have his job back. Another actress who is always easy to identify is Gisa Flake, even if she has only two scenen like in this movie. She reminds me a bit of Cindy aus Marzahn (or the woman who portrays Cindy I should say). The writing is not doing her any favors really either in this movie. When she says something like there is no hurry, it felt really cringeworthy to be honest. But of course they wanted her (just like Rojinski's character) to come off as likable with how she won't give him the phone early. Now that should be enough about the supporting players.
Fürmann is basically the movie. I have never been particularly big on him, but there is no denying how he elevates the material here, makes some bad scenes even fairly watchable, like when we see him the moment he hears about his younger daughter saying something like she must stay home because of her father. The scene with the two protagonists telling each other that, despite all the obstacles, they cannot and do not want to live without each other was actually mildly touching. Good acting there. But yeah, overall, the script is too much of a mess to really win me over. One thing they struggle with again, like so many other times, is accurate writing when it comes to children and how they speak and what they say. I am talking about the youngest daughter here. Basically every line from her felt like something a girl that age wouldn't say, some more, others less. The weakest moment was probably when she said something to her dad about their new life and how she is not happy about it. They tried to conceal the ridiculousness of this moment by having the mother and older daughter say something similar right before that, but it was still painfully obvious. And please don't tell me that she is just a girl who is smarter than her age. Another story that did not do too much for me was everything involving these bus stop boys: the initial confrontation, the garage scene and finally the conflict with the leader of the pack dating the main character's daughter. I mean it is surely at least partially subjective, but even if you like this part of the story, you cannot deny that it is highly unrealistic with how it is exactly one of these boys he meets at the bus stop, has never met before, that becomes his daughter's significant other. And of course that the girl is single during the right time again to even start something with him. Another unrealistic aspect here is job-related. I mean the job interview the female protagonist had was a bit exaggerated honestly, but still somewhat tolerable and at least at its core realistic that they won't hire her. However, when she storms into that office to complain about a payment and is hired immediately because the guy there liked her passion or so, that was completely realistic. I am pretty sure that a similar scenario has not happened once in the last 10, maybe 20, years here in Germany. It makes absolutely no sense. She is not even qualified for the job and still manages to perform incredibly well. In general, the whole idea about tables being turned and now the female is the one who pursues a great career did very little for me. Again maybe subjective, but there are so many aspects in here that I did not like from a subjective perspective that I would be genuinely surprised if people actually did. Finally, of course this movie also has the slightly forced happy ending thhat they could have handled better, but yeah like I said I expected worse story-wise overall, so you see how low my expectations were because I am definitely not happy about the outcome. This film also sucked during minor moments. Like how the man fires the employees. Or the actually best example for that is really the inclusion of a particularly sad song on one occasion that did not fit at all because this scene was not exactly uplifting, but definitely not as much of a bummer as this song tried to convince us. Horrible choice there. So this is not a good movie. The key story about a man realizing that he is a workaholic and changing his priorities is nothing new, but could have worked well with better execution for sure. The actual outcome did not, however. It already felt unrealistic how they were forced to climb down the social ladder. I mean it is alright that they are not as rich anymore as they once were, but how far down they climbed before the wife started having a career was clearly exaggerated for dramatic purpose. Also stuff beteen the two like how he fired these employees and even signed the contract for their new home without even talking to his wife made almost no sense at all. And again, please don't tell me that this was supposed to show us that they weren't this close anymore. Still, in order to finish the review on a high note, I want to say that they did alright with the preview in the opening scene here with a man watching his partner and another man and when we find out eventually that the situation was really harmless (even if again not realistic sadly), we should keep in mind that things are not always the way they seem. That is one thing to take from this movie. One of really not too many things. Even if Fürmann kept it from becoming a failure, I still suggest you watch something else. It's a thumbs-down for me.
Fürmann is basically the movie. I have never been particularly big on him, but there is no denying how he elevates the material here, makes some bad scenes even fairly watchable, like when we see him the moment he hears about his younger daughter saying something like she must stay home because of her father. The scene with the two protagonists telling each other that, despite all the obstacles, they cannot and do not want to live without each other was actually mildly touching. Good acting there. But yeah, overall, the script is too much of a mess to really win me over. One thing they struggle with again, like so many other times, is accurate writing when it comes to children and how they speak and what they say. I am talking about the youngest daughter here. Basically every line from her felt like something a girl that age wouldn't say, some more, others less. The weakest moment was probably when she said something to her dad about their new life and how she is not happy about it. They tried to conceal the ridiculousness of this moment by having the mother and older daughter say something similar right before that, but it was still painfully obvious. And please don't tell me that she is just a girl who is smarter than her age. Another story that did not do too much for me was everything involving these bus stop boys: the initial confrontation, the garage scene and finally the conflict with the leader of the pack dating the main character's daughter. I mean it is surely at least partially subjective, but even if you like this part of the story, you cannot deny that it is highly unrealistic with how it is exactly one of these boys he meets at the bus stop, has never met before, that becomes his daughter's significant other. And of course that the girl is single during the right time again to even start something with him. Another unrealistic aspect here is job-related. I mean the job interview the female protagonist had was a bit exaggerated honestly, but still somewhat tolerable and at least at its core realistic that they won't hire her. However, when she storms into that office to complain about a payment and is hired immediately because the guy there liked her passion or so, that was completely realistic. I am pretty sure that a similar scenario has not happened once in the last 10, maybe 20, years here in Germany. It makes absolutely no sense. She is not even qualified for the job and still manages to perform incredibly well. In general, the whole idea about tables being turned and now the female is the one who pursues a great career did very little for me. Again maybe subjective, but there are so many aspects in here that I did not like from a subjective perspective that I would be genuinely surprised if people actually did. Finally, of course this movie also has the slightly forced happy ending thhat they could have handled better, but yeah like I said I expected worse story-wise overall, so you see how low my expectations were because I am definitely not happy about the outcome. This film also sucked during minor moments. Like how the man fires the employees. Or the actually best example for that is really the inclusion of a particularly sad song on one occasion that did not fit at all because this scene was not exactly uplifting, but definitely not as much of a bummer as this song tried to convince us. Horrible choice there. So this is not a good movie. The key story about a man realizing that he is a workaholic and changing his priorities is nothing new, but could have worked well with better execution for sure. The actual outcome did not, however. It already felt unrealistic how they were forced to climb down the social ladder. I mean it is alright that they are not as rich anymore as they once were, but how far down they climbed before the wife started having a career was clearly exaggerated for dramatic purpose. Also stuff beteen the two like how he fired these employees and even signed the contract for their new home without even talking to his wife made almost no sense at all. And again, please don't tell me that this was supposed to show us that they weren't this close anymore. Still, in order to finish the review on a high note, I want to say that they did alright with the preview in the opening scene here with a man watching his partner and another man and when we find out eventually that the situation was really harmless (even if again not realistic sadly), we should keep in mind that things are not always the way they seem. That is one thing to take from this movie. One of really not too many things. Even if Fürmann kept it from becoming a failure, I still suggest you watch something else. It's a thumbs-down for me.
