"In der Falle", which means "Trapped", is a German television film from 2015, so this one is over five years old now, actually only for a few days because it also aired in November back then. It runs for the usual 1.5 hours, minimally under, and this is really the standard running time for small screen releases from my country. The writer and director is Nina Grosse, a really experienced filmmaker who is in her early 60s now and she started moviemaking already around the time when I was born, i.e. in the mid80s. Her body of work is tolerable I would say. She does have a few years early in the 21st century when she mostly worked on low-quality projects, but she seems to be over the worst phase now, even if this film here was not exactly a revelation either. But I shall get to that later. Most of the time, she came up with the screenplays for her directorial efforts, so it is no surprise at all that she did here as well. As for the cast, the lead actress is Claudia Michelsen. I gotta say I am not a big fan of her from everything else I have seen her in, but the fact that she appears in here is fine and elevates her slightly in my perception. It may not be a great performance, maybe not even a good one, but she took the risk and did not go for trashy Degeto films this time. Annd there is no denying she looks fairly attractive for her age, which was probably also a vital ingredient to the story overall. Or maybe not because in the end probably nothing her affair said was really meant in an honest way. For some reason, Michelsen is only credited third here on imdb, so this page definitely needs some fixing. As for the supporting cast, you can check out the list yourself, at least those listed here, which is far from complete. Michelle Barthel for example is missing entirely apparently. She plays the protagonist's daughter. I mean okay she does not have a lot of screen time and only one baity scene when she is worried about what could happen when her friends at school or her (potential) boyfriend see her mother's compromising photos, but that is it. Still she should be here. The male actors who play the husband and the affair are included here. There are not really any big names except Michelsen although I am not sure you can call her such. Still, most of the cast members have been pretty prolific and relatively successful over the years. Not in terms of aards maybe, but they do not have to worry about not finding any work and that means for every profession. But for actors especially because so many are struggling.
Now, as you can see form my rating, I would say that this film is neither a failure, not a good watch, fairly weak at times and overall forgettable. The story with the married woman who enters into an affair that almost costs her everything has been done many times, also before (2015) and many times it has also been done better than here. Nothing really new, creative or inspiring to this movie. I especially struggled with th general concept here. I mean they really tried everything to make the affair seem as unlikable as possible with how he probably stages the visit with the kite, how he gets really close to her immediately, how he pretends the car is not working, how he does not mention his wife etc. Many more examples of that. And I did not like him. However, I also did not like the protagonist. It feels as if they want us to forget about her despicable actions altogether and see her as somebody we cheer for nonetheless. And she is definitely not likable in a flawed fashion needs to be said here. This is what they were going for. But it did not apply for me one bit. Let's take a look at what she did. Even cheating once with the other guy on the seaside would have been once too much, but literally she is having an affair for weeks afterwards it seems. And she thinks about running away with him. That much she seems to love her caring family (husband and children). There is no excuse for her actions. So you could slightly say this is a sexist film too like so many other ARD movies are (although I watched this one today on the smaller ARD channel one) because the other guy is really the epitome of evil, but the woman is not. She is just a victim. Which is true of course and there is no excuse for the blackmailing, but he gets his fair punishment for that. Where is her punishment for giving him 1.5 million? Her reward is that her husband basically comes back to her. Seriously? Oh my, okay it's love good for her and also her career seems to be still on a level that she mostly gets unharmed out of this entire misery. On a complete different note, the scene with the guy on the motorbike was maybe a bit too much over-the-top and unrealistic, but it's okay. There are luckily not too many moments where this film is mostly hitting the wrong notes. However, it is also never really on the convincing side and definitely not the crime movie they want it to be. Especially the idea of how she could lose everything in her job should have been handled much better and with much more attention to detail. Instead, it just felt thrown in for the sake of it and yet they want us to always have this on our minds. The talent is not there. Still, to slightly end my review on a positive note, I want to add that I loved the scene with her mother because said mother says it exactly as it is and the way I saw it too. Thumbs-up to her and the actress. Shame she did not have more screen time. Alright, that is all then. This film is still better than most of the other stuff that you see on German television nowadays, especially the romance comedy and drama garbage in the afternoon, but this does not make "In der Falle" a good movie. My suggestion is to skip the watch and go for something else instead.
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