This TV movie was a big disappointment. Both as a novel adaptation, but also judged independently. The DVD version I saw came without subtitles, and the sound quality was very weak, so that I couldn't understand all of the dialogues (I'm a German native). Juhnke was the only actor that was at least halfway convincing. As a result, it was very difficult to relate to the characters. Intrinsic motivations of the characters were unclear, and their relationships were undeveloped and unexplained. For example - contrary to the novel - it was not at all understandable why Eleonor was interested in Erich. Also, the beginning of the addiction somehow just happened in the movie, whereas the novel did a much better job in explaining what was going on inside Sommer, step by step. Moving the setting from between the world wars to the nineties was a bad decision. Many of the most interesting aspects of the story are tightly connected to the historic setting (class consciousness, classic roles of husbands and wives, incapacitation of alcoholics, psychiatry etc.).
Review of Der Trinker
