Wunderschön

No pun intended - the movie centers around women and issues they have to face (no pun intended here either). It has to do with aging, it has to do with body image, it has to do with expectations. It has to do with dreams, desires and other things. And it does show us different women, with different wishes and goals. All have in common that they struggle - with the way of life they have chosen or rather that has been put on them. Be it family, husband, boyfriend or otherwise.

That all makes this easy or open to cliches. If you are a cynic you'll quite a lot to feed upon ... try to be open minded, try to understand what the movie is trying to tell you. Of course if the message itself and the women being the focus is not something you can get behind (I will not call you names if that is the case, you judge yourself or call yourself whatever you want to if that applies) ... maybe you shouldn't watch this in the first place.

German film and me (also German) - it's never going to be a great love affair, especially when it's a comedy. The same stories have been told over and over again for at least 30 years. They take place either in Munich or Berlin, you live in huge old apartments and have problems that you would only smile about in real life. These problems are played up as if it were a matter of life and death, with dialog that is completely unrealistic and situations that want to be slapstick but are usually badly written to make you laugh. "Wunderschön" is a movie in which no one is likeable and nothing is important or credible. Even good actors (Gedeck, Król) perform badly and the fact that Karoline Herfurth won the Lubitsch Award is an insult to the grand master of humor. If you don't know how to write good comedies, take a look at the ancient Greeks. They knew their craft, but German screenwriters don't.

I was curious to watch this movie. It evolves around the lives of 5 women of several ages. They all face their own problems and issues and surprisingly some of them are even related to one another, the women, not the problems or issues. Although there are some flaws in the movie or things too good to be true it is a fine movie to watch as we get to see life from a female perspective for a change. How strange it may sound, it even is a feel good movie.

The movie "Wunderschön" is about five women of different ages who are confronted with their self-image and the demands of themselves and others. This German film directed by Karoline Herfurth debates and discusses the situation of women in today's world. Five women in different situations, a teenager with body acceptance issues, a middle-aged frustrated wife looking for more than being the mother of two young children, an attractive elderly housewife who wants to focus the rest of her life on satisfying/pleasing herself, a young model who struggles with the requirements of modeling fashion agencies and a middle-aged teacher who refuses to have a relationship with a man for fear of falling into the wife-husband model.

The movie starts out with very interesting premises, with legitimate questions about the different situations of women, but in the second part of the movie, the director chooses to follow the Hollywood cliche, predictable and without originality. The ending is like the movies of "Love Actually", "Four Weddings and a Funeral". It's really sad and disapponted that a movie with so many possibilities chooses the easy way of cheap romantic drama.

We see the stories of a group of women (different ages, different situations), that has to fight against patriarchal roles and discrimination and for accepting and respect their own bodies and their own necessities.

Karoline Herfurth directs an inspiring movie with the insightful view of a woman, who knows the real every day injustices for women in an unequal society.