"Urlaub mit Mama" is a German German-language live action film from 2018, so actually not that old. This television production runs for the usual slightly under 1.5 hours and as directed by Swiss filmmaker Florian Froschmayer. I had a look at the man's body of work and I don't see a lot of quality there, so the mostly disappointing outcome here is not really a surprise. The one always as much in charge of delivering quality as the director is the writer and here that would be Nina Bohlmann. Looking at her body of work, it is roughly on the samel level like Froschmayer's, but there needs to be a disctinctcion here because I am only talking about her body of work as a writer. I am genuinely surprised to see that as a producer she worked on the Oscar-winning "Die Fälscher", so indirectly you could almost call her an Oscar winner as of course the producers always get the award. However, like I said, this was many years ago already and also in another profession, so taking this into account, she should definitely stay with producing and leave the highly creative process of screenplay writing to more gifted people. As for the cast, you see the two lead actresses on the photo here on imdb. Anja Kling and Christine Schorn have worked for a long long time in the film industry, Scorn obviously much longer even given her age. As for Kling, I was never too big on her as an actress. Her portrayal here confirms my theory. Still, she is probably not among the worst aspects of the movie. The script is sometimes so much all over the place that probably no other actress could have turned it into a convincing watch. Then again, she accepted the role, so there should not really be an excuse. Her career has been fading for a long time anyway. If I remember correctly, she used to be a much bigger star back in the day. The same can probably not be said about Schorn. She started filmmaking in the early 1960s already, but almost 30 years of that were in the GDR, so it is safe to say that, also with the awards recognition she received, her glory years happened in the new millennium. I would not call this film or her performance in here anything close to glory though. Although I feel that she always give pretty similar performances, but if she is playing next to a very limited actress like Kling, it doesn't become painfully obvious. Kling by the way has also been in over 130 films already, so not way below Schorn despite the age difference, but this also shows that Kling is really not too picky with her role selection.
Now we have spoken enough about the two actresses in the center of this movie and let's take a look at the story and characters. A mother and daughter meet for the mother's birthday and spend the holidays (not Christmas) together in Italy. Right away, we find out that while they relationship is not horrible, they are also not too close and have not seen each other in a while. They are certainly not best friends. Most of the time, this duo shares the screen from beginning to end really, but there are also always segments in which we see supporting players, most of them coming from Kling's character's life like her son, her man, the relative who drives to Mannheim to pick off said boy etc. But none of them are really interesting. That would have been okay if the two protagonists had been more interesting, but neither are they. It is pretty shocking how much drama they included in here and how it all felt for the sake of it. Okay, to some there is also a comedic note, but it wasn't particularly funny either. The script is really a failure from every genre perspective. Highly disappointing. The consequence (and my main criticism) is that everything that happens does not only feel for the sake of it, but is also way too much. In reality, mother and daughter would have spend the holidays together and afterwards they return home and that is it. What happens here? I will list everything I remember, although I hope I can forget it pretty soon. The old lady ends up on a truck with a guy who deals with drugs, passports etc. The police is constantly chasing both women around. They steal another man's car. Kling's character's son ends up fighting with annother kid and is sent home by his teacher. Kling's character's man has a love affair and is basically performing romantic actions with another woman while he is on the phone with Kling's character. The latter knows about it and at the end is about to make sure she leaves the unfaithful guy. She finds out that their son knows about it too. Actually knew about previous affairs. Kling's character's office calls her because there is an important presentation the next day and they sent the wrong items. Said presentation is cancelled for the sake of a happy ending because Kling's character won't make it home quick enough to be there and solve the issue. So yeah, it is ridiculously exaggerated. And like I said the sad thing is not that it is happening, but that it still felt so uninteresting. These were the bigger plot points. There are also minor moments that feel like nonsense. Just take the parking area moment when the guy they stole the car from is there although this is probably hundreds of kilometers away. What a coincidence. The dialogue writing is also a mess at times. Of course, especially Kling's line delivery is not helping, but when she says for example something like "I am not somebody who says I knew it, but I knew it.", there is a lot of cringe. And shamefully enough, they go back to this quote near the end when Schorn's character says something similar as if they were proud of these lines. Truly embarrassing. As for the mother-daughter story, it is also mostly a failure and very uninspired. Never a success from the emotional perspective. Just take the argument between the two when Kling says soemthing mean, but she is basically correct about how a mother should support her daughter instead of cause further conflict when it comes to the cheating partner. This was a big moment. A small moment like what we find out Schorn's character said before she stepped into the truck was equally bad. Also I am not sure if they are getting away with telling us Schorn's character is in her mid-60s here and not in her mid-70s like the actress is. It wasn't even necessary given Kling's age, but I guess her character is also supposed to be 10 years younger. It's quite a mess. With Schorn they probably did it because, the could not depict her as really old because she would be too old then for the wild dance with the Italian guy early on or with the flirting references or with the references about her clothing style at the very end etc. Okay, I think i said enough allready. This one here turned out extremely poor. In the middle of the film, I was still thinking about giving it two more stars and in the end, it is probably a close call, but I go for the lower rating here. It is bad enough overall to be called a failure, also with the ((again for-the-sake-of-it) closure scene when the two say goodbye and Schorn's character calls her daughter a "courageous woman" woman out of nowhere. The epitome of a forced happy ending. Absolutely do not watch!
Now we have spoken enough about the two actresses in the center of this movie and let's take a look at the story and characters. A mother and daughter meet for the mother's birthday and spend the holidays (not Christmas) together in Italy. Right away, we find out that while they relationship is not horrible, they are also not too close and have not seen each other in a while. They are certainly not best friends. Most of the time, this duo shares the screen from beginning to end really, but there are also always segments in which we see supporting players, most of them coming from Kling's character's life like her son, her man, the relative who drives to Mannheim to pick off said boy etc. But none of them are really interesting. That would have been okay if the two protagonists had been more interesting, but neither are they. It is pretty shocking how much drama they included in here and how it all felt for the sake of it. Okay, to some there is also a comedic note, but it wasn't particularly funny either. The script is really a failure from every genre perspective. Highly disappointing. The consequence (and my main criticism) is that everything that happens does not only feel for the sake of it, but is also way too much. In reality, mother and daughter would have spend the holidays together and afterwards they return home and that is it. What happens here? I will list everything I remember, although I hope I can forget it pretty soon. The old lady ends up on a truck with a guy who deals with drugs, passports etc. The police is constantly chasing both women around. They steal another man's car. Kling's character's son ends up fighting with annother kid and is sent home by his teacher. Kling's character's man has a love affair and is basically performing romantic actions with another woman while he is on the phone with Kling's character. The latter knows about it and at the end is about to make sure she leaves the unfaithful guy. She finds out that their son knows about it too. Actually knew about previous affairs. Kling's character's office calls her because there is an important presentation the next day and they sent the wrong items. Said presentation is cancelled for the sake of a happy ending because Kling's character won't make it home quick enough to be there and solve the issue. So yeah, it is ridiculously exaggerated. And like I said the sad thing is not that it is happening, but that it still felt so uninteresting. These were the bigger plot points. There are also minor moments that feel like nonsense. Just take the parking area moment when the guy they stole the car from is there although this is probably hundreds of kilometers away. What a coincidence. The dialogue writing is also a mess at times. Of course, especially Kling's line delivery is not helping, but when she says for example something like "I am not somebody who says I knew it, but I knew it.", there is a lot of cringe. And shamefully enough, they go back to this quote near the end when Schorn's character says something similar as if they were proud of these lines. Truly embarrassing. As for the mother-daughter story, it is also mostly a failure and very uninspired. Never a success from the emotional perspective. Just take the argument between the two when Kling says soemthing mean, but she is basically correct about how a mother should support her daughter instead of cause further conflict when it comes to the cheating partner. This was a big moment. A small moment like what we find out Schorn's character said before she stepped into the truck was equally bad. Also I am not sure if they are getting away with telling us Schorn's character is in her mid-60s here and not in her mid-70s like the actress is. It wasn't even necessary given Kling's age, but I guess her character is also supposed to be 10 years younger. It's quite a mess. With Schorn they probably did it because, the could not depict her as really old because she would be too old then for the wild dance with the Italian guy early on or with the flirting references or with the references about her clothing style at the very end etc. Okay, I think i said enough allready. This one here turned out extremely poor. In the middle of the film, I was still thinking about giving it two more stars and in the end, it is probably a close call, but I go for the lower rating here. It is bad enough overall to be called a failure, also with the ((again for-the-sake-of-it) closure scene when the two say goodbye and Schorn's character calls her daughter a "courageous woman" woman out of nowhere. The epitome of a forced happy ending. Absolutely do not watch!
