"Willkommen auf dem Land", which means "Welcome to the countryside", is a German television film from 2013, so this one that had the working title "Willkommen in Meckpomm" (mentioning a specific region in the north of Germany) is also already clearly over half a decade old. The director is Tim Trageser, who has been really prolific since the mid-90s. Not a really bad body of work, but also not particularly good. He turned 50 last year. He does not too frequently write his own screenplays and he didn't here either. Instead, they hired Laila Stieler and that is an interesting name. She is slightly older than Trageser and already started in the late 1980s and fairly recently, she won a German film prize for her pretty good script for the movie "Gundermann", the film that also won the big prize last year. So we can be curious what's still to come from her. She probably has at least another 15 years in the industry ahead of her I guess. However, it is also a bit shocking if you see the strong and convincing work she is capable of and compare it to this film here. Yes it is this weak. By the way, the version I watched ran for 1.5 hours exactly pretty much, but here on imdb it says that it is in fact even longer. Over 90 minutes are not common at all for German small screen releases, but as I see this is a ZDF production and not one of these many, many ARD (Degeto) production, I would not rule out the possibility and it can be that they perhaps cut five minutes or so because it was far from the first time that this film was shown on national television. This is obvious of course because of how old it already is.
Okay, on the photo here on imdb you see actress Senta Berger. She is pretty famous here in Germany, but it is still a misleading picture because the film is at least as much about Günther Maria Halmer's character as it is about Berger's if not more. However, this kind of films usually has female audiences as a target group, which maybe explains the photo. It also explains why Berger was depicted as the controlled, likable and really patient wife while her husband keeps causing a bit of mayhem and is impatient and definitely treats her wife not as the goddess as he should. And even if for once he does, like during the birthday party when he says everybody should drink in honor of his wife, then she reacted immediately in a fashion that shows us she is even better, more digified when she says that he is the birthday boy and all must drink to him. Just one minor scene and example that come to my mind. No idea why I remembered this specifically, but it helps here in making my point I suppose. Their relationship is by the way one key component where they messed up a lot. How it goes back and forth. The best example is really how they were arguing a lot, then all of a sudden out of nowhere they seem to find a compromise and are getting along really well again with the birthday party I just mentioned as an example and then there is another harsh argument where it is implied that they could even break up because he does not like the coutryside at all and she does not want to go back to the city. But in the end, everybody is happy again and it worked out well and the husband finally honors his wife and her wish the way he should. Very cringeworthy. And please don't tell me this was a realistic manner of depicting ups and downs in a marriage. I think if I ever came close to thinking this film was not a failure in its entirety (which it is!), then it ws because of Halmer's performance. He was alright most of the time. Not great either though, but clearly not as bad as Berger, who really struggled hard in all her more emotional scenes, be it when she defends her granddaughter in the dirty laundry scene, be it when she tells her man everything she sacrificed for him or be it when she makes a little emotional speech to her granddaughter. She is such an overrated actress honestly, no clue why people have casted her for decades in lead roles. Anyway, said granddaughter also shows up in the countryside because her mother needs her grandparents to take care of her for a while. So much happens in this movie that it all felt rushed and unauthentic. Let's not even get started about father and daughter struggling to get along too, but of course hug it out eventually. Not 1% shall remain unhappy here. Or how Berger's character goes away with the daughter to make sure the other two can talk towards the end. Also pretty cringeworthy. Senta Berger's character is the one always pulling the strings no? Okay, you get the message. That's pretty much all then. The story with the very strict neighbor (Karussseit I think) was okay until that point where she suddenly unexplectedly warms up to the protagonists in the most unrealistic fashion. In addition, the story with the longtime unemployed is by the way not any better. Of course, they get the funding eventually in an equally unrealistic turn of events. Also was one guy a neighbor, the one in the back row there? Then why does the wife not know him when he shows up (again pretty bad scene and not half as funny as they wanted it to be) at the birthday party? And how does Halmer's character (cringeworthy how they showed him very early on how competent he is with his seminars) early on have no clue who exactly is taking part in this seminar until seconds before he enters the room. It was all not realistic at all and you must be really naive to believe in the coincidence. Oh yeah, I mentioned the granddaughter earlier too. Shhe of course also gets a pseudo dramatic story in which she runs away from her family because she is struggling so hard. Is she? They did not elaborate on this story at all beforehand, so you see they want the utmost emotion from the audience, but they did not have the time and talent to prepare these twists convincingly. Extremely poor execution. This film is a failure and I give it a massive thumbs-down. Highly not recommended and I would still not say this is close to the lowest you see on television here in Germany these days. Indeed a poor state of the art!
Okay, on the photo here on imdb you see actress Senta Berger. She is pretty famous here in Germany, but it is still a misleading picture because the film is at least as much about Günther Maria Halmer's character as it is about Berger's if not more. However, this kind of films usually has female audiences as a target group, which maybe explains the photo. It also explains why Berger was depicted as the controlled, likable and really patient wife while her husband keeps causing a bit of mayhem and is impatient and definitely treats her wife not as the goddess as he should. And even if for once he does, like during the birthday party when he says everybody should drink in honor of his wife, then she reacted immediately in a fashion that shows us she is even better, more digified when she says that he is the birthday boy and all must drink to him. Just one minor scene and example that come to my mind. No idea why I remembered this specifically, but it helps here in making my point I suppose. Their relationship is by the way one key component where they messed up a lot. How it goes back and forth. The best example is really how they were arguing a lot, then all of a sudden out of nowhere they seem to find a compromise and are getting along really well again with the birthday party I just mentioned as an example and then there is another harsh argument where it is implied that they could even break up because he does not like the coutryside at all and she does not want to go back to the city. But in the end, everybody is happy again and it worked out well and the husband finally honors his wife and her wish the way he should. Very cringeworthy. And please don't tell me this was a realistic manner of depicting ups and downs in a marriage. I think if I ever came close to thinking this film was not a failure in its entirety (which it is!), then it ws because of Halmer's performance. He was alright most of the time. Not great either though, but clearly not as bad as Berger, who really struggled hard in all her more emotional scenes, be it when she defends her granddaughter in the dirty laundry scene, be it when she tells her man everything she sacrificed for him or be it when she makes a little emotional speech to her granddaughter. She is such an overrated actress honestly, no clue why people have casted her for decades in lead roles. Anyway, said granddaughter also shows up in the countryside because her mother needs her grandparents to take care of her for a while. So much happens in this movie that it all felt rushed and unauthentic. Let's not even get started about father and daughter struggling to get along too, but of course hug it out eventually. Not 1% shall remain unhappy here. Or how Berger's character goes away with the daughter to make sure the other two can talk towards the end. Also pretty cringeworthy. Senta Berger's character is the one always pulling the strings no? Okay, you get the message. That's pretty much all then. The story with the very strict neighbor (Karussseit I think) was okay until that point where she suddenly unexplectedly warms up to the protagonists in the most unrealistic fashion. In addition, the story with the longtime unemployed is by the way not any better. Of course, they get the funding eventually in an equally unrealistic turn of events. Also was one guy a neighbor, the one in the back row there? Then why does the wife not know him when he shows up (again pretty bad scene and not half as funny as they wanted it to be) at the birthday party? And how does Halmer's character (cringeworthy how they showed him very early on how competent he is with his seminars) early on have no clue who exactly is taking part in this seminar until seconds before he enters the room. It was all not realistic at all and you must be really naive to believe in the coincidence. Oh yeah, I mentioned the granddaughter earlier too. Shhe of course also gets a pseudo dramatic story in which she runs away from her family because she is struggling so hard. Is she? They did not elaborate on this story at all beforehand, so you see they want the utmost emotion from the audience, but they did not have the time and talent to prepare these twists convincingly. Extremely poor execution. This film is a failure and I give it a massive thumbs-down. Highly not recommended and I would still not say this is close to the lowest you see on television here in Germany these days. Indeed a poor state of the art!
