The first thing I noticed in the film - how good the little Maximilian Ehrenreich plays. He previously had looked into the ways talented kids might react to different situations in comparison to, so to say, 'normal' kids. I never leave reviews, however, his talent inspired me, he really played his role remarkably - I believed his character every second.
His mother has a lovely character, too, I'm sure lots of mothers are able to relate - worried about their kid being bullied at school and just wanting them to be, again, "normal", do sports with friends, socialise etc. At the end of the day - why would it ever matter what the parents want? Then it's a matter of stepping over one's pride and letting it go, realising what's actually good for your kid. I loved the way the film creators presented this struggle between a mother and her child.
2 Reviews
Potential for more lost in attempts to make the film appeal to the simple-minded
Horst_In_Translation2 October 2019
Warning: Spoilers
"Mein Sohn, der Klugscheißer" is a German television movie from October 2016, so three years old now almost exactly to the day, but probably a lot older when you read this review. Like pretty much every other German small screen release, this one here runs for 1.5 hours plus/minus a few minutes and the director here is Pia Strietmann, fairly prolific when it comes to small screen releases here in my country. She is also one of the several writers working on the screenplay and overall we may have a case here of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Anyway, the cast is okay, certainly above-average when it comes to actors in here for a television release. But before I say who is in it, I would like to say thatg I really do not like the title of the movie. The original Idea I think was "Mein Sohn Jerôme", so just using his name and that would have been the way better choice. I also could have lived with "Schlaumeier" or "Besserwisser", which are both more level-headed and less obscene terms for a kid/person who knows better than everybody else and lets everybody else also feel this way. But "Klugscheißer" honestly is a word where the title of my review applies. This is a wording that will attract mostly the simple-minded and as there are many, they went for commercial success and goals over respectable quality. Oh well, maybe it is just my opinion, but I did not like this decision at all. Okay, now for the film itself. I quite liked Maximilian Ehrenreich here, the child actor. I can see why he has a really respectable and unexpectedly full body of work for an actor clearly away from the 18th birthday that will turn himinto an adult. He is probably the best thing about the film here. Alwara Höfels plays his mother and I am generally not a fan of her at all because in terms of mannerisms and approach to roles, I rarely never see any differences in her portrayals. But here she is tolerable, nothing more nothing less. Fatih Akin regular Adam Bousdoukos (for once playing a German character) was a delightful surprise playing the love interest to Höfels' character. I mean the character had very little to offer that could be memorable, but what the Greek actor did with it was really nice. These are basically the ones with the most screen time. Zoran Pingel plays the (new) best friend to the title character and he was good too I felt., probably more because of the ways in whcih he was written than for a great performance, even if Pingel did an okay job for sure. In general, most of the actors were convincing here. The only one I did not like because he did not have to have great range was the one who played the boy who keeps bullying Jerôme and ends up with a broken nose. But this one does not have a whole lot of screen time anyway.
So these were the more positive aspects. The negative aspects were there too and sadly more frequent, or at least more dominating, than the positive. At its very essence, the screenplay simply isn't good. While the key message about bullying and standing up to that as well as the idea of a super intelligent child and partially how it was elaborated on was not too bad, each moment the film tried to deliver the neecsseary attention to detail, it came really short in what it was trying to achieve, especially when it came to character writing. There are some cringeworthy moments here, most of all involving Höfels' character. Now I am used to German writer struggling with the comedy genre all the time, but also the drama here was not any better. One example for comedy just, one scene when they are at this museum and Höfels' character is busy laughing about some show or movie she is watching while everybody there looks at her in a derogatory way because obviously she does not care one bit about what the guide has to say and rightfully they do so because it is pretty annoying how she cannot behave. I mean it's nice she wants to go on a trip and do some freetime activity that means more to her son that to her, but if she can't act appropriately there without bothering everybody else, then she just shouldn't do it. And still this was supposed to depict her as free-spirited and now scared to act the way she feels that very moment to us viewers. Well, it wasn't the case for me obviously. Now as for flaws in dramatic writing: The relationship between the two adults had many weaknesses. I actually liked that Bousoukos was not scared to tell her she is not getting the job done with her boy, but this was pretty much the only positive component really. Obviously, these two would get together again at the end despite the equally predictable struggles before that. The idea that she goes on dates with other guys again was really wrong because we knew who she wanted and so did she and also that she did not even check the profile/messages appropriately before she would go on a date with the nerdy guy (played by another actor who has greatg recognition value). What else. Yeah well I found the English speech at the end pretty pretentious I must say. What else? Also I felt that when she unleashes on the other parents eventually, especially the one who is the dad of the boy with the broken nose, was neither good acting nor good writing, but really just there to please the audience with how much we liked Höfels' character at that point already. Or were supposed to like her. The idea that all goes broke near the end and then all is fixed again is one we find in many many movies, especially mediocre German movies like this one. Here it was used in the way that the child protagonist disappeared all of a sudden and a drastic safety mission was necessary that also reunited the two lovebirds again. Cringeworthy stuff. Shades are also something that is missing almost entirely from this film. With some you could not be immediately sure if they are good or bad like the woman who makes these tests with him, but really at some point you immediately knew if they were supposed to be good or bad, black or white, nothing between them and this is always a key aspect in detemining if a film is good or rather weak. Going for likable flawed characters just won't cut the cake anymore. Okay I think that is basically all I have to say about this movie here. I am not sure how successful it was in terms of ratings, but at least not successful enough for a sequel it seems and that is good in my opinion. The ending was supeprhappy (too happy really) anyway and it felt way too much that they had to try so hard to please the audience that they left some realism (or a lot of) on the way. This especially refers to Höfels'character again who honestly acted extremely bipolar to me with how quickly she changed her views, plans and ideas, no matter if we are talking about her boyfriend, her son and what she thinks is best for him, but also what is best for her. As for what she thinks is best for her son, there can be many more details examples given, such as the immigrant friend, the boarding school, her (potential) boyfriend, even the dog if we take minor aspects. But no need to further tear this movie apart as it did enough of that on his own. I still think with a better script this could have worked far more nicely and been an actual quality watch because the talented actors were there and the subject was interesting enough too, but like I already said it just fell apart too often because of lack of talent in writing and desperate attempts to sacrifice quality for making the audience feel comfortable. Don't watch. Not worth 90 minutes of your time.
So these were the more positive aspects. The negative aspects were there too and sadly more frequent, or at least more dominating, than the positive. At its very essence, the screenplay simply isn't good. While the key message about bullying and standing up to that as well as the idea of a super intelligent child and partially how it was elaborated on was not too bad, each moment the film tried to deliver the neecsseary attention to detail, it came really short in what it was trying to achieve, especially when it came to character writing. There are some cringeworthy moments here, most of all involving Höfels' character. Now I am used to German writer struggling with the comedy genre all the time, but also the drama here was not any better. One example for comedy just, one scene when they are at this museum and Höfels' character is busy laughing about some show or movie she is watching while everybody there looks at her in a derogatory way because obviously she does not care one bit about what the guide has to say and rightfully they do so because it is pretty annoying how she cannot behave. I mean it's nice she wants to go on a trip and do some freetime activity that means more to her son that to her, but if she can't act appropriately there without bothering everybody else, then she just shouldn't do it. And still this was supposed to depict her as free-spirited and now scared to act the way she feels that very moment to us viewers. Well, it wasn't the case for me obviously. Now as for flaws in dramatic writing: The relationship between the two adults had many weaknesses. I actually liked that Bousoukos was not scared to tell her she is not getting the job done with her boy, but this was pretty much the only positive component really. Obviously, these two would get together again at the end despite the equally predictable struggles before that. The idea that she goes on dates with other guys again was really wrong because we knew who she wanted and so did she and also that she did not even check the profile/messages appropriately before she would go on a date with the nerdy guy (played by another actor who has greatg recognition value). What else. Yeah well I found the English speech at the end pretty pretentious I must say. What else? Also I felt that when she unleashes on the other parents eventually, especially the one who is the dad of the boy with the broken nose, was neither good acting nor good writing, but really just there to please the audience with how much we liked Höfels' character at that point already. Or were supposed to like her. The idea that all goes broke near the end and then all is fixed again is one we find in many many movies, especially mediocre German movies like this one. Here it was used in the way that the child protagonist disappeared all of a sudden and a drastic safety mission was necessary that also reunited the two lovebirds again. Cringeworthy stuff. Shades are also something that is missing almost entirely from this film. With some you could not be immediately sure if they are good or bad like the woman who makes these tests with him, but really at some point you immediately knew if they were supposed to be good or bad, black or white, nothing between them and this is always a key aspect in detemining if a film is good or rather weak. Going for likable flawed characters just won't cut the cake anymore. Okay I think that is basically all I have to say about this movie here. I am not sure how successful it was in terms of ratings, but at least not successful enough for a sequel it seems and that is good in my opinion. The ending was supeprhappy (too happy really) anyway and it felt way too much that they had to try so hard to please the audience that they left some realism (or a lot of) on the way. This especially refers to Höfels'character again who honestly acted extremely bipolar to me with how quickly she changed her views, plans and ideas, no matter if we are talking about her boyfriend, her son and what she thinks is best for him, but also what is best for her. As for what she thinks is best for her son, there can be many more details examples given, such as the immigrant friend, the boarding school, her (potential) boyfriend, even the dog if we take minor aspects. But no need to further tear this movie apart as it did enough of that on his own. I still think with a better script this could have worked far more nicely and been an actual quality watch because the talented actors were there and the subject was interesting enough too, but like I already said it just fell apart too often because of lack of talent in writing and desperate attempts to sacrifice quality for making the audience feel comfortable. Don't watch. Not worth 90 minutes of your time.
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