"Alle unter eine Tanne", which means "All under the Christmas tree", or also "Schöne Bescherung" is a German television movie from 2014, so it has its 5th anniversary this year. It runs for 90 minutes like most German small screen releases and was directed by Oliver Schmitz, already a prolific filmmaker back then and now even more. The script is by Philipp Müller, not too much to say about him as he was basically a rookie when this was made, and Lo Malinke. The latter is certainly more known now compared to back then because he worked on the screenplays of several Til Schweiger films. The outcome of these films is pretty embarrassing though, so this certainly does not say anything positive about him. Anyway, this duo clearly did not come up with a work/screenplay here that was in the least impressive. On the contrary, the writing feels very chaotic and is maybe the film's biggest weakness. Admittedly the acting is also not really a revelation. Not one single actor here manages to elevate the weak script. And this is a disappointment as (not only) German film buffs have certainly come across the likes of Gwisdek (senior), Dohm, Gastdorf and Simon I'd say. And it is not just them who are pretty prolific and have been for years, if not decades, but the entire cast is pretty experienced.. Who surprised me the most in the cast is really Claes Bang after having seen him play the main character in an Oscar-nominated movie not too long ago. But he is not German, so it is not too surprising that he does not have many lines really. No clue though how he ended up in the cast for this one.
Okay as for the plot, I don't want to say too much. To sum it all up, you can say that the mother/grandmother of a family (Dohm) has not told her offspring yet that she left her husband (Gwisdek) and is together with a considerably younger man instead. And clearly she does not plan to do so this Christmas because there she would have had a good chance because the man's new love is also there surprisingly and instead she tells everybody that said new love is a friend from school and she brought her young partner, who is actually the mother's man. So yeah, you think we have a lot of Bäumchenwechseldich here (as we say in Germany) and the truth won't out. Until the very end that is, when we get the extremely expected happy ending again and everybody is fine with everybody again. They even moved forward in time one year to show us said happiness and that all the conflicts are solved and everybody is happy of course. We also get the birth of a new family member. or that happen during this year I should say because all the other characters joining the Christmas party for this movie each bring their own secrets and burdens. I mean you can decide for yourself how interesting and well-executed these are and if it was good writing to have one character tell her boyfriend she is pregnant moments before the door opens and leaves him completely baffled there. Anna Julia Antonucci sure is stunning, but that alone does not mean she (or the writers) can get away with stuff like that. I guess that is pretty much all then. I really don't want to get a lot more into the plot, but near the end it feels like it gets even worse when we have Gwisdek's character start making stupid jokes on penis size. Oh well, I guess I am really generous with my 2 stars out of 5 for this film. It's not a good watch by any means, not even during the holidays. Actually, on the contrary, this film will get you out of the spirit and not inside. So best is to skip it and even if it is on television probably at least once per year in December, it is still pretty much not even good enough for afternoon television. Hardly any rvene remotely funny moments here. Watch something else instead.
Okay as for the plot, I don't want to say too much. To sum it all up, you can say that the mother/grandmother of a family (Dohm) has not told her offspring yet that she left her husband (Gwisdek) and is together with a considerably younger man instead. And clearly she does not plan to do so this Christmas because there she would have had a good chance because the man's new love is also there surprisingly and instead she tells everybody that said new love is a friend from school and she brought her young partner, who is actually the mother's man. So yeah, you think we have a lot of Bäumchenwechseldich here (as we say in Germany) and the truth won't out. Until the very end that is, when we get the extremely expected happy ending again and everybody is fine with everybody again. They even moved forward in time one year to show us said happiness and that all the conflicts are solved and everybody is happy of course. We also get the birth of a new family member. or that happen during this year I should say because all the other characters joining the Christmas party for this movie each bring their own secrets and burdens. I mean you can decide for yourself how interesting and well-executed these are and if it was good writing to have one character tell her boyfriend she is pregnant moments before the door opens and leaves him completely baffled there. Anna Julia Antonucci sure is stunning, but that alone does not mean she (or the writers) can get away with stuff like that. I guess that is pretty much all then. I really don't want to get a lot more into the plot, but near the end it feels like it gets even worse when we have Gwisdek's character start making stupid jokes on penis size. Oh well, I guess I am really generous with my 2 stars out of 5 for this film. It's not a good watch by any means, not even during the holidays. Actually, on the contrary, this film will get you out of the spirit and not inside. So best is to skip it and even if it is on television probably at least once per year in December, it is still pretty much not even good enough for afternoon television. Hardly any rvene remotely funny moments here. Watch something else instead.
