"Die Frau, die sich traut" is director Marc Rensing's second feature film and just like with his first, he also co-wrote the screenplay. The film is mostly a one-woman show as actress Steffi Kühnert is in pretty much every scene from start to finish. She plays Beate, a woman shortly before her 50th birthday, who basically stopped existing as an individual human being and everything she does all day long is for others. Her son and his girlfriend live with her and she does the laundry, shopping etc. for the two. Also she takes care of her granddaughter, quite a problem child, so her daughter can use her time studying. There was one interesting part that involved the granddaughter and how Beate instead of helping her with the homework just told her the answers. Of course, afterward the granddaughter fails during tests and when the school calls the studying mother because of that, Beate is the one who gets the psychological punishment again, from her own daughter. Beate is always too nice, too self-sacrificing and still everything she does is taken for granted. And of course Beate also has a job, there only was one scene, but it looked like it was physically challenging. Back in the day, she was a successful swimmer who sacrificed her Olympic ambitions, however, for becoming a mother. By now, she has turned into pretty much a waste dump for everybody's problems except her own. Unfortunately her children have become comfortable in the situation and don't even appreciate her altruist mother's efforts anymore. She's always there for everybody, but rarely are they there for her.
One day, she gets diagnosed with cancer and that moment is the big turning point for her. Two wrongs make one good sort of. From that moment on, she starts living with purpose again. She takes money she promised to her son for herself and stops taking care of her granddaughter as she becomes too busy working for her own dream, which is swimming through the English Channel. The cancer aspect was not really the crucial thing for me. It was more that something horrible like this had to happen for the main character to finally gain control again. The heart and soul of the film were the interactions between Beate and her children or her best friend, for example when she talks about her son's dreams and he responds with a reference to her dreams. Or the way Beate just isn't capable of telling anybody (except her friend after quite some time too) about her cancer till it becomes painfully obvious as she obviously doesn't want to be seen as a burden. Another quite moving scene was earlier in the film when her son and his (pregnant) girlfriend talk about moving to another place and she desperately tries to cling onto them in terms of money or a new car. The film does not really have any comedic scenes, maybe the very few which could make you smile are the ones that are funny because they're so absurd, for example when the son goes to work in a shirt more suitable for leisure time and complains that his mom stopped making the laundry. You can certainly classify this movie as emotional torture porn.
Finally I'd like to address one reference that was done very cleverly by the director and illustrate in which way he played with our expectations. In the very first scene we see a bathing cap swimming loosely in the water and from that moment on when she starts her quest of swimming through the Channel, I basically felt (with reference to the bathing cap) that tragedy was inevitable, even more so when the boat has some kind of problem and can't follow her. Beate struggling with the net was almost one step too many then, but the way things actually turn out was done very interestingly and makes up at least to some extent for all the negativity from before. The closing shot is also pretty great and fits nicely to a quote from early in the film when her daughter after finding out about Beate's cancer tells her that it's all about her (Beate) from now on. That's exactly the tone of the final shot. As a whole, I very much recommend the movie. It's pretty sad, but may even have a bit of a motivational aspect on you and you don't even have to be in the exact same situation as the lead character to gain a valuable life lesson from it.
One day, she gets diagnosed with cancer and that moment is the big turning point for her. Two wrongs make one good sort of. From that moment on, she starts living with purpose again. She takes money she promised to her son for herself and stops taking care of her granddaughter as she becomes too busy working for her own dream, which is swimming through the English Channel. The cancer aspect was not really the crucial thing for me. It was more that something horrible like this had to happen for the main character to finally gain control again. The heart and soul of the film were the interactions between Beate and her children or her best friend, for example when she talks about her son's dreams and he responds with a reference to her dreams. Or the way Beate just isn't capable of telling anybody (except her friend after quite some time too) about her cancer till it becomes painfully obvious as she obviously doesn't want to be seen as a burden. Another quite moving scene was earlier in the film when her son and his (pregnant) girlfriend talk about moving to another place and she desperately tries to cling onto them in terms of money or a new car. The film does not really have any comedic scenes, maybe the very few which could make you smile are the ones that are funny because they're so absurd, for example when the son goes to work in a shirt more suitable for leisure time and complains that his mom stopped making the laundry. You can certainly classify this movie as emotional torture porn.
Finally I'd like to address one reference that was done very cleverly by the director and illustrate in which way he played with our expectations. In the very first scene we see a bathing cap swimming loosely in the water and from that moment on when she starts her quest of swimming through the Channel, I basically felt (with reference to the bathing cap) that tragedy was inevitable, even more so when the boat has some kind of problem and can't follow her. Beate struggling with the net was almost one step too many then, but the way things actually turn out was done very interestingly and makes up at least to some extent for all the negativity from before. The closing shot is also pretty great and fits nicely to a quote from early in the film when her daughter after finding out about Beate's cancer tells her that it's all about her (Beate) from now on. That's exactly the tone of the final shot. As a whole, I very much recommend the movie. It's pretty sad, but may even have a bit of a motivational aspect on you and you don't even have to be in the exact same situation as the lead character to gain a valuable life lesson from it.
