"Auf Augenhöhe" or "At eye level" is a German 100-minute movie from 2016 that was written and directed by Joachim Dollhopf and Evi Goldbrunner and as these two are a couple, it is not too surprising that this by is not their first filmmaking effort together, but maybe their most known as this movie really received a surprisingly big amount of awards recognition including a German Film Award. "Surprising" because you cans see from the amount of votes here on imdb that the movie really was not seen by too many. This certainly has to do with the fact that the cast includes not one single big name and that is pretty uncommon for German films these days. Even I as a film buff don't know any cast members really, even if I have heard of Bartuschek and also seen Dobra in other projects, but they are certainly no big names. One of the two protagonists is played by Jordan Prentice that you have seen perhaps in other films such as In Bruges where he plays a pretty significant role at the end. No need to go any further into detail. And while I cannot say he impressed me in this film we have here, I still think he was certainly better than Luis Vorbach, the child actor at the center of the movie. He was really painfully bad in some scenes and not memorable whatsoever in only one single scene, so that I think it really would have helped the film if they had cast another actor. But he is not the only problem, probably not even the biggest problem.
I think the key problem here is really the script. It is painful to watch at times how the movie is so much by the books with its plot (twists) and how everything unfolds that there were absolutely no risks taken whatsoever by the filmmakers in terms of the story. The consequence is that it really does feel scripted. I will mention a few examples. This basically includes every conflict there is, such as when the two scream at each other in the man's home. Or the whole rowing team plot when very unrealistically the adult male protagonist starts asking himself why his friends(?) accept him. The megaphone scene was cringeworthy to watch too. And right when you felt the film could not get any worse, they included the letter that says he is not really the boy's father. And right when you thought again, it could not get any worse, they have the boy not send the letter to his real father and instead stay with his false father. This was really the epitome of a highly unrealistic, very unsatisfying and extremely forced happy ending. Sadly you see this very often in (German) films these days and I was not amused at all. If the first half of the film had not been partially solid, then I really would have considered giving an even lower rating here because it goes dramatically south quality-wise the longer it goes. Truly disappointing. Also I felt the story line about the deceased mother was not handled too well. They were trying to make an emotional impact at times, but just came very short. At least when it comes to me. I must say I also struggles with perceiving the two main character as likable as the filmmakers wanted us to. The car driving scene when they change seats and the man plays the poor victim for the police officer honestly did not make him seem very likable. Aside from that, I believe the writers struggles with realistic interactions between all the young characters. This is definitely a very difficult subject and fairly challenging, but I still hoped they would do better looking at the film's strong reception. There I am particularly talking about the final scene when the older teenagers behave nicely all of a sudden towards the main character, which did not feel particularly authentic this very moment and yeah well it just didn't feel in a way they would actually react, but again forced for the happy ending. Add to that that the rowing team of course also wins a medal eventually. Overall, there are definitely far more weaknesses than strengths in this film and they come short with pretty much everything they wanted to achieve here. That's why I give this one a thumbs-down. Premise is there for an okay, maybe even good movie, but the actual outcome is more than just a bummer. Watch something else instead.
I think the key problem here is really the script. It is painful to watch at times how the movie is so much by the books with its plot (twists) and how everything unfolds that there were absolutely no risks taken whatsoever by the filmmakers in terms of the story. The consequence is that it really does feel scripted. I will mention a few examples. This basically includes every conflict there is, such as when the two scream at each other in the man's home. Or the whole rowing team plot when very unrealistically the adult male protagonist starts asking himself why his friends(?) accept him. The megaphone scene was cringeworthy to watch too. And right when you felt the film could not get any worse, they included the letter that says he is not really the boy's father. And right when you thought again, it could not get any worse, they have the boy not send the letter to his real father and instead stay with his false father. This was really the epitome of a highly unrealistic, very unsatisfying and extremely forced happy ending. Sadly you see this very often in (German) films these days and I was not amused at all. If the first half of the film had not been partially solid, then I really would have considered giving an even lower rating here because it goes dramatically south quality-wise the longer it goes. Truly disappointing. Also I felt the story line about the deceased mother was not handled too well. They were trying to make an emotional impact at times, but just came very short. At least when it comes to me. I must say I also struggles with perceiving the two main character as likable as the filmmakers wanted us to. The car driving scene when they change seats and the man plays the poor victim for the police officer honestly did not make him seem very likable. Aside from that, I believe the writers struggles with realistic interactions between all the young characters. This is definitely a very difficult subject and fairly challenging, but I still hoped they would do better looking at the film's strong reception. There I am particularly talking about the final scene when the older teenagers behave nicely all of a sudden towards the main character, which did not feel particularly authentic this very moment and yeah well it just didn't feel in a way they would actually react, but again forced for the happy ending. Add to that that the rowing team of course also wins a medal eventually. Overall, there are definitely far more weaknesses than strengths in this film and they come short with pretty much everything they wanted to achieve here. That's why I give this one a thumbs-down. Premise is there for an okay, maybe even good movie, but the actual outcome is more than just a bummer. Watch something else instead.
