"Ein Geschenk des Himmels" is a German television movie from 2005, so this one has its 15th anniversary next year already. The director is Olaf Kreinsen who was already at that point pretty experienced and prolific and his effort here is certainly among the film's better aspects. The writer is Marcus Hertneck and his script is certainly the film's biggest weakness. This is no surprise though because the only thing he worked on before 2005 was Lindenstraße and it is not a good show by any means, even if it has a great tradition here in Germany. What is more surprising is how Hertneck was really employed many times afterwards despite how bad this one here was. I really hope he managed to step his game up. Now let's get to the film itself. The reason why people watched it and why it is shown in television like it was today is leac actor Walter Sittler. He is easy to recognize and has a lot of charisma. The rest of the cast are not well-known, not even to film buffs likke myself. One guy was in "Das Boot" and maybe you recognize him if you love that movie (which I don't), but that's it. So yeah as you can see from the title I wanted to enjoy these 1.5 hours. Sittler's charisma as well as female lead Suzan Anbeh's looks are tempting, but in the end I just couldn't and I must say it is not only a weak movie, but really a failure. The script is too much of a mess to really see anything positive in here. I could give you a million examples. I think the best example is everything related to the boy. He was not only a bad actor, but also wrotten in the most cringeworthy manner, especially with the sunglasses on at the very end. The film starts with him being bullied by two bigger students right away, so we are supposed to feel sorry for him. But we do not know him one bit at that point. Maybe they knew how garbage the character is, so they tried to create sympathy right away. There are more examples. Everything related to the biker gang is ridiculous and not in a good way. Or individual moments. Like at the very end when Sittler's character sits with the church group and nobody saw him get in. Highly unrealistic. Or of course back to the boy, the most horrible moment involving him was this God-given sign at the church and how he says afterwards now he understands. This could have worked in an animated film at best. Or when Sittler's character is at the house early on and the mother asks if he wants to sit with them and the boy would really like that to happen, but before that he was very mean towards the woman's other suitor. I did feel bad for him honestly. He was a likable guy, way too normal perhaps to be appreciate by the female protagonist and her son, but he had only good for them in mind, even if they tried theor best to depict him as an antagonist. Guess who I consider the main antagonist? The one who does not visit his old and sick mother for years, the one who runs away immediately after having sex with the beautiful girl. Oh yeah that is just his character. We have to forgive him. And after all, he days early on that his mother should have called him and he would have helped her when he comes to her house. Oh my. Okay these were some examples why this movie is a massive failure. Like I said, there are many others. You will recognize them when you see them. Like the mother beating her boy (she did on one occasion didn't she? totally not her style). Or everything linked to Sinatra. Only the most shallow will see this as a quality tribute to him, although I feel kinda bad for the actors here. They were basically let alone from that music perspective just like they were completely exposed by the screenplay. Then again, nobody forced them to accept these roles, so they do not deserve a thumbs-up by any means either. This is a film that is shown in German afternoon television here and there despite how old it is already, but seriously even for that it is too bad. Massive thumbs-down. Horrible film.
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