"Einmal Sohn, immer Sohn", which means "Once a son, always a son", is a German television film from 2018, so this is neither really new, but also not particularly old. But dated it is you could because every negative association out there fits in nicely with this movie that stays slightly under the 1.5-hour mark. It may sound harsh, but yeah it is this bad. The director is Thomas Jauch, not related to Günther Jauch I think and he turned 60 the year this movie got made. But his body of work is nothing to be proud of at all. All quantity over quality in terms of almost everything he worked on since the mid90s. On the level of "Doppelter Einsatz". The only interesting thing about him is really that he was born in Italy. Still he never worked on Italian movies. Good for Italian movie-goers perhaps. And also he was part of coms international projects too very, very early in his career like "Enemy Mine" and "Die unendliche Geschichte", but look where he is now with this recent movie we got here. However, the writers are at least as much to blame here. Just take Kurzawa, who is even older than Jauch and his body is only minimally better I would say. In any case, it is better than all the writing credits for co-writer Hardi Sturm. He started as an actor way back in the old millennium when he was still in his 20s and still acts here and there nowadays, but in the new millennium he has been more busy with writing. Definitely not a good idea judging from this film we have here. The rating here on imdb is also way too high. Now a few words on the cast. On the left of the imdb photo you see Austrian actress Christiane Hörbiger. She turned 80 the year this film got made. I always thought her to be absolutely overrated. I cannot really say a lot about her very early weeks from many years ago, but what she has been a part of in the 21st century in terms of ARD Degeto movies lacks creative ambitions entirely and that is why it is an absolute travesty how the actress wants to be seen as some kind of distinguished grande dame of German film. The opposite is the case. Her range and versatility scale towards zero by now, she plays the same pseudo-important classy characters in really every film she is in and the good thing here is that she wore shades for more than half of this film, so at least it wasn't too obvious that she also cannot act with her eyes one bit, which is maybe the biggest challenge for actors and makes the difference between the good and the great. Hörbiger of course also cannot act with everything else, no matter how gigantic her body of work maybe and nowadays the inclusion of her in the cast is a sure indicator that you are about to watch a film that is not even remotely good. This is also the case here, but the fact that this is another Degeto production (luckily they are getting fewer nowadays) is also another safe indicator. The man on the right is actor Sebastian Bezzel, who plays Hörbiger's character's son in this film. I mean I kinda like him. His Eberhofer cop comedies are absolutely delightful and funny at times, but other than that his role selection is also where the (GEZ) money is and nothing really to be proud of. A bit of a pity honestly. Julia Brendler I have always been more of a fan of her looks than her range really because there is not a great deal of range, but at least she tries to keep it essential and does not go all-in. This is also a key reason why she was not among the worst components from this film here. And even in her mid40s, she is still pretty gorgeous. Katja Danowski is also not forgotten, partially because of Herr Lehmann, but her role here is minimal. Jasmin Gerat I definitely liked more in the past than in the now and for me she will always be more of a (Bravo TV) host than an actress, even if this happened 20 years ago. Hannes Jaenicke was in this movie? Blink and he is gone. And finally, Mario Adorf. He is 90 now, so was already in his late 80s at that point too and basically the only inclusion with him here was to have scenes together with Hörbiger as some kind of way to united to icons of the German film history. That was especially sad honestly to see how they wasted Adorf like that. He has some screen time, but literally no material at all. He is just there. Thats it. And the worst is that he is ten times an actor and performer than Hörbiger has ever been and will ever be. Probably 30 times, so the parallel between these two actors was absolutely not fitting at all. Yes, I know I sound harsh in terms of Hörbiger here, but she will have to deal with it. I mean she got cast for decades for lead roles despite not being a versatile actress at all. Good for her I guess. Terrible choices from those in the casting departments and the viewers have to deal with it. Then again, many deem her talented and the probably do not deserve otherwise.
The mess starts at the very beginning here. We find out Hörbiger's character was an icon of the feminism and emancipation movement through a littke video she watches herself in the car. So cringeworthy, especially with the voiceover lauding her this much. It feels so wrong. The only positive thing you can say there is that the character also turns 80, so they did not make her much younger than the actress trying to tell us she is 70 only. But it is still incredibly weak with how full of itself this film is in praising Hörbiger. This is never about her character. And the most cringeworthy moment is probably when, during this introduction, we see her on a photo with Merkel. Sigh. It continues like that. There are stories and plots about other characters, but at the film's core it is never about anything other than showing us how great Hörbiger is. Not even her character. This is also a really unrealistic movie. I mean take the thingey that went wrong with the operation although the likelihood was under 1%. Take Brendler's character meeting an old love and Hörbiger's finding out about it. I'm just glad they did not turn this into some absurd jealousy story beyond the one scene in which it was featured. More examples out there, also that she meets Adorf's character unexpectedly. In terms of political correctness, the film elaborate a bit on the protagonist's grandson who may or may not have a soft spot for guys rather than girls. It's not entirely clear. He seems to lack passion during a play when kissing a girl and near the end he shows up with another male kid, but in the last scene he is shown with the young woman again. They probably did not want to be too specific here in order too not offend anybody. Older audiences, for whom this film is mostly made with Hörbiger, may still have not entirely modern views there. But it doesn't matter anyway what it was about at its core. Truth is it is just poor writing all along and apparently neither of the two writers here was remotely capable of pointing out each other's mistakes. I did not expect it from Sturm, but with Kurzawa it disappoints me a bit. Anyway, one thing that these films always have in common is the happy ending. Like very unrealistically happy ending. 20 Minutes early all is about to fall apart usually, but then it is all fixed like a miracle. Also the case here. Hörbiger's character out of nowhere bonds with Gerat's, bonds with her son, all of a sudden sees the son's happy marriage and is willing to admit her mistakes etc. At the same time, the son also wins a prestigious achitect prize without even handing in a model and everybody else did that. Yeah, right! With Bezzel's final speech, I could also feel the cringe. I stated earlier that I like the man and it is true, but this was just too much now with him of course thanking his mother in the end after you could be annoyed (if you are really simple) that he did not mention her and he says that his mother did not do everything right, but always had the right intentions. Well, I am not so sure about that. More pseudo closure, just like the young (potentially gay) man showing up with another male kid there and also being close to the female friend from early on. His kissing scenes with her are also highly cringeworthy the way they were built up (or weren't built up) while some loud "romantic" and meaningful music is played to make us forget about the lack of depth and substance there. Or everywhere else with this film. I mean take the moment in which Hörbiger's character calls somebody else something like an evil witch or when she says she can do something on her own and then one second later whines that nobody helped her or when she shows Brendler's character her true self and that she can see again and only wants to stay to make sure she can create tension between her son and his wife. That was the moment really when Bezzel's character really should have sent her away, but hey, not with somebody like Hörbiger, we are still supposed to see her as a likable character. I don't even. And don't tell me I saw her as unlikable because acted so well. This is absolutely not the case. Okay, I think this is really (more than) enough now. You probably understood how I think about this film. It was really, really bad. No hesitation for me here in giving the outcome a massive thumbs-down. It is also not just the key plots (that feel like filler material at times) that suck the most, but also those small moments like the destroyed model or Gerat on TV. But again, they mostly involve Hörbiger, like take the gesture she makes with her hand to tell everybody to leave the room at the very end. What a leading figure this woman is. Irony off. That is it. Absolutely skip this film 100% and one can only hope they will not make a sequel. It may not seem too likely with Hörbiger's age, but she still seems to be healthy and prolific as an actress, so who knows. This one here get an utmost negative recommendation from me. Unwatchable at times and still pretty weak during its better moments. Shame on them for using Johnny Cash songs for such a travesty.
The mess starts at the very beginning here. We find out Hörbiger's character was an icon of the feminism and emancipation movement through a littke video she watches herself in the car. So cringeworthy, especially with the voiceover lauding her this much. It feels so wrong. The only positive thing you can say there is that the character also turns 80, so they did not make her much younger than the actress trying to tell us she is 70 only. But it is still incredibly weak with how full of itself this film is in praising Hörbiger. This is never about her character. And the most cringeworthy moment is probably when, during this introduction, we see her on a photo with Merkel. Sigh. It continues like that. There are stories and plots about other characters, but at the film's core it is never about anything other than showing us how great Hörbiger is. Not even her character. This is also a really unrealistic movie. I mean take the thingey that went wrong with the operation although the likelihood was under 1%. Take Brendler's character meeting an old love and Hörbiger's finding out about it. I'm just glad they did not turn this into some absurd jealousy story beyond the one scene in which it was featured. More examples out there, also that she meets Adorf's character unexpectedly. In terms of political correctness, the film elaborate a bit on the protagonist's grandson who may or may not have a soft spot for guys rather than girls. It's not entirely clear. He seems to lack passion during a play when kissing a girl and near the end he shows up with another male kid, but in the last scene he is shown with the young woman again. They probably did not want to be too specific here in order too not offend anybody. Older audiences, for whom this film is mostly made with Hörbiger, may still have not entirely modern views there. But it doesn't matter anyway what it was about at its core. Truth is it is just poor writing all along and apparently neither of the two writers here was remotely capable of pointing out each other's mistakes. I did not expect it from Sturm, but with Kurzawa it disappoints me a bit. Anyway, one thing that these films always have in common is the happy ending. Like very unrealistically happy ending. 20 Minutes early all is about to fall apart usually, but then it is all fixed like a miracle. Also the case here. Hörbiger's character out of nowhere bonds with Gerat's, bonds with her son, all of a sudden sees the son's happy marriage and is willing to admit her mistakes etc. At the same time, the son also wins a prestigious achitect prize without even handing in a model and everybody else did that. Yeah, right! With Bezzel's final speech, I could also feel the cringe. I stated earlier that I like the man and it is true, but this was just too much now with him of course thanking his mother in the end after you could be annoyed (if you are really simple) that he did not mention her and he says that his mother did not do everything right, but always had the right intentions. Well, I am not so sure about that. More pseudo closure, just like the young (potentially gay) man showing up with another male kid there and also being close to the female friend from early on. His kissing scenes with her are also highly cringeworthy the way they were built up (or weren't built up) while some loud "romantic" and meaningful music is played to make us forget about the lack of depth and substance there. Or everywhere else with this film. I mean take the moment in which Hörbiger's character calls somebody else something like an evil witch or when she says she can do something on her own and then one second later whines that nobody helped her or when she shows Brendler's character her true self and that she can see again and only wants to stay to make sure she can create tension between her son and his wife. That was the moment really when Bezzel's character really should have sent her away, but hey, not with somebody like Hörbiger, we are still supposed to see her as a likable character. I don't even. And don't tell me I saw her as unlikable because acted so well. This is absolutely not the case. Okay, I think this is really (more than) enough now. You probably understood how I think about this film. It was really, really bad. No hesitation for me here in giving the outcome a massive thumbs-down. It is also not just the key plots (that feel like filler material at times) that suck the most, but also those small moments like the destroyed model or Gerat on TV. But again, they mostly involve Hörbiger, like take the gesture she makes with her hand to tell everybody to leave the room at the very end. What a leading figure this woman is. Irony off. That is it. Absolutely skip this film 100% and one can only hope they will not make a sequel. It may not seem too likely with Hörbiger's age, but she still seems to be healthy and prolific as an actress, so who knows. This one here get an utmost negative recommendation from me. Unwatchable at times and still pretty weak during its better moments. Shame on them for using Johnny Cash songs for such a travesty.
