"Tür an Tür" or "Door to Door" is a German television movie from 2013, so not a particularly new movie anymore, but also a couple years away from its 10th anniversary. Or maybe not anymore depending on when you read this review. One thing that will not change is that the director here is Austrian filmmaker Matthias Steurer. I would not say his body of work is good or even great, but he has some okay projects included there, projects that are far far superior to this one here quality-wise. With his origin, it is not the biggest surprise that the writer is Nina Bohlmann, who actually worked as a producer on the Oscar-winning Austrian movie "Die Fälscher". So I suppose she is a better producer than writer because this screenplay we have here indicates a complete absence of talent. This may sound a bit harsh, but it is true. Anyway, despite the strong Austrian impact from the filmmakers here, these slightly under 1.5 hours are a German production. Another ARD Degeto production in fact and maybe that tells you already that you have to expect the worst here and even if you do so, then probably it will be even worse than wwhat you expect. The cast makes it fairly obvious too. You see two women depicted on the photo here on imdb and they are the ones in the center of the story. I will start with the younger one as there is not too much to say about her. Tanja Wedhorn is fairly attractive for her age. She will turn 50 next year and here she is in her early 40s. It is pretty telling though if your most known career effort is "Bianca - Wege zum Glück" in which you play the title character. There is no range and versatility to her whatsoever. This shows a couple times as well during this movie we have here, like for example in her crying scene on one occasions. However, it must also be said that she is not as bad as her co-lead. She surely does not deliver subtlety the way you could have hoped she would, but she is by no means as shamefully over the top as Thekla Carola Wied.
Her performance is really as pretentious as her double first name. Then again, you cannot be surprised either with her because basically since the beginning of the new millennium she has appeared in many many low-quality films like this one here and basically her entire career now consists of those. Her absence of range and talent is especially shocking because she has been in the film indutsry for a long long time. And yet, she is this bad. Actually, "bad" is still too nice of a word to describe her. "Horrible" would be more accurate. There are many examples in this film during which she really succeeds in making the already pretty embarrassing screenplay seem downright horrible. Just one: The scene when she confronts the doctor, who is her young neighbor's partner. It is already nonsense that she so easily gets an appointment with him so quickly, but if we start about elaborating on realism here, then all is lost. Let's move on to the scene when she is actually there with him and indirectly speaks about his relationship whhile pretending it is all about her (non-existent) daughter and the story is just the same. What a coincidence! Also how the doctor justifies himself is extremely cringeworthy. He just should have said nothing. Or let the old lady ramble. It's truly cringeworthy. Also to make sure that we do not forget who is in charge and in control here, they also have Wied's character leave the room on her own the very moment she wants to. Another scene is related to the hacking. Apparently, one day of most basic computer lessons are enough for her to know how she can hack her neighbor's account. What??? What is going on. I mean they have done it many times that passwords do not seem safe enough and are ridiculously easy to guess in films, but this was really a travesty of the highest order. It still makes sense that the young character is very angry towards the end and it is the (usual) main conflict towards the end when we could (no, should) be worried that their friendship might be over, but it does not make it less of a joke. Another scene would be the one when we have Wied's character find out what is going on between her neighbor and the doctor and her face expression (à la "oh you poor girl, if you only knew") literally almost made me physically sick. It is embarrassing how the writer and Wied shove into our faces here how much the protagonist is a smart caring lady with as much life experience as it gets. 100% unreal. The cringe is real. There are many other very weak moments and scenes and inclusions, like the story with the other old man, but i will spare you these. I hope I can forget them as soon as possible. One more thing I do want too mention though, namely the weird IT technology that is used for comedic purposes here to make sure everything is alright with the old lady. And also the old man. The toilet was used as a bit of a running gag, but it was so not funny. And let's not even get started on the woman on the screen basically singing the old lady's name on one occasion in the second half of the movie. It was really impossible to take. There are many other highly cringeworthy movies that would have been the worst about the vast majority of other movies, but (like I said) here it is just one of many inclusions on a truly low level. This is a film you want to skip at any cost. It is truly an abomination and gets worse and worse the longer it goes. Fat thumbs-down. Oh yes, of course it is also again really anti-male, but that is also almost a given if we are talking about ARD Degeto films. At best, the characters are just clumsy and not showing their women how much they love and need them, at worst they are cold-blooded cheaters. So it is also a pretty manipulative movie and I applaud everybody who sees through all that the way I do and is not tricked by stupid inclusions like the younger woman's professional success (especially during the "negotiations" early on) because they want us to see her as talented and good enough on her own. You absolutely don't want your wives, children, parents etc. to see this mess if you really care for them, especially because it also takes itself so seriously with the pseudo important soundtrack or the pseudo emotional inclusion that Wied's character as in the exact same situation like her neighbor back in the day. It all feels fake. They want the utmost emotion from everybody in the audience, but they are not willing to include 1% of creativity to achieve their goal. Or they simply do not have any creativity. Shameful stuff in any case. However, not half as shameful as the fact that the German people have beenn forced for decades to pay a double-digit amount every single month to ARD etc. for garbage films like this one to be made. Lamb to the slaughter! To sum it all up, the title is just as pointless. Says nothing about the story and could have been used like that for every single movie in which the characters live next to each other really. There is not a single perspective (or production value) in here from which this film turned out convincingly. Highly not recommended.
Her performance is really as pretentious as her double first name. Then again, you cannot be surprised either with her because basically since the beginning of the new millennium she has appeared in many many low-quality films like this one here and basically her entire career now consists of those. Her absence of range and talent is especially shocking because she has been in the film indutsry for a long long time. And yet, she is this bad. Actually, "bad" is still too nice of a word to describe her. "Horrible" would be more accurate. There are many examples in this film during which she really succeeds in making the already pretty embarrassing screenplay seem downright horrible. Just one: The scene when she confronts the doctor, who is her young neighbor's partner. It is already nonsense that she so easily gets an appointment with him so quickly, but if we start about elaborating on realism here, then all is lost. Let's move on to the scene when she is actually there with him and indirectly speaks about his relationship whhile pretending it is all about her (non-existent) daughter and the story is just the same. What a coincidence! Also how the doctor justifies himself is extremely cringeworthy. He just should have said nothing. Or let the old lady ramble. It's truly cringeworthy. Also to make sure that we do not forget who is in charge and in control here, they also have Wied's character leave the room on her own the very moment she wants to. Another scene is related to the hacking. Apparently, one day of most basic computer lessons are enough for her to know how she can hack her neighbor's account. What??? What is going on. I mean they have done it many times that passwords do not seem safe enough and are ridiculously easy to guess in films, but this was really a travesty of the highest order. It still makes sense that the young character is very angry towards the end and it is the (usual) main conflict towards the end when we could (no, should) be worried that their friendship might be over, but it does not make it less of a joke. Another scene would be the one when we have Wied's character find out what is going on between her neighbor and the doctor and her face expression (à la "oh you poor girl, if you only knew") literally almost made me physically sick. It is embarrassing how the writer and Wied shove into our faces here how much the protagonist is a smart caring lady with as much life experience as it gets. 100% unreal. The cringe is real. There are many other very weak moments and scenes and inclusions, like the story with the other old man, but i will spare you these. I hope I can forget them as soon as possible. One more thing I do want too mention though, namely the weird IT technology that is used for comedic purposes here to make sure everything is alright with the old lady. And also the old man. The toilet was used as a bit of a running gag, but it was so not funny. And let's not even get started on the woman on the screen basically singing the old lady's name on one occasion in the second half of the movie. It was really impossible to take. There are many other highly cringeworthy movies that would have been the worst about the vast majority of other movies, but (like I said) here it is just one of many inclusions on a truly low level. This is a film you want to skip at any cost. It is truly an abomination and gets worse and worse the longer it goes. Fat thumbs-down. Oh yes, of course it is also again really anti-male, but that is also almost a given if we are talking about ARD Degeto films. At best, the characters are just clumsy and not showing their women how much they love and need them, at worst they are cold-blooded cheaters. So it is also a pretty manipulative movie and I applaud everybody who sees through all that the way I do and is not tricked by stupid inclusions like the younger woman's professional success (especially during the "negotiations" early on) because they want us to see her as talented and good enough on her own. You absolutely don't want your wives, children, parents etc. to see this mess if you really care for them, especially because it also takes itself so seriously with the pseudo important soundtrack or the pseudo emotional inclusion that Wied's character as in the exact same situation like her neighbor back in the day. It all feels fake. They want the utmost emotion from everybody in the audience, but they are not willing to include 1% of creativity to achieve their goal. Or they simply do not have any creativity. Shameful stuff in any case. However, not half as shameful as the fact that the German people have beenn forced for decades to pay a double-digit amount every single month to ARD etc. for garbage films like this one to be made. Lamb to the slaughter! To sum it all up, the title is just as pointless. Says nothing about the story and could have been used like that for every single movie in which the characters live next to each other really. There is not a single perspective (or production value) in here from which this film turned out convincingly. Highly not recommended.
