"Pünktchen und Anton" or "Annaluise & Anton" is a German 100-minute film from 1999, so three more years and this one will have its 20th anniversary. This is of course based on the children's book by famous writer Erich Kästner and here we have the second movie adaptation of the material. Sadly, all in all, it was equally disappointing as the one from the 1950s. The writer and director is Caroline Link and I must say I liked most of the stuff I have seen from her, but not this one. She made this movie 2 years before her Oscar-winning "Nirgendwo in Afrika" came out. Before that, she made "Jenseits der Stille" starring Sylvie Testud and Testud also plays one of the main characters in this 1999 film. Actually, she plays possibly the most interesting character of the film as the scenes with her character were the rarely entertaining moments in here. This is the story of a girl (with rich parents) and a boy (with poor parents) who become friends despite their different backgrounds. On the rocky road of their friendship, they face problems involving theft, bullying, bad parents and a criminal boyfriend. But they go through all of this together.
And in the end, there is a happy ending for everybody involved, well at least the good guys as always in kids films. And I don't mind that. What I do mind though, however, is the way the story was told and the plot. It was extremely unrealistic on a handful occasions and the film lacked authenticity completely. I have not read Kästner's book, but i really hope this one was not as bad. Another problem here is that the jokes weren't great all, so I cannot recommend this film from a comedic perspective either. Acting wasn't bad for the most part, but also not in a way where anybody really had me glued to the screen. Still, this one here is an example of how kids film also attract big name actors like Köhler, Zirner, Becker, Testud and Fürmann. A solid cast for sure. But they did not succeed in making this pretty weak script (sadly pretty tough to care for any of the characters) work. And several actors gave really stereotypical performance that were embarrassing, but not convincing, especially Köhler. I do not recommend the watch. Thumbs down.
And in the end, there is a happy ending for everybody involved, well at least the good guys as always in kids films. And I don't mind that. What I do mind though, however, is the way the story was told and the plot. It was extremely unrealistic on a handful occasions and the film lacked authenticity completely. I have not read Kästner's book, but i really hope this one was not as bad. Another problem here is that the jokes weren't great all, so I cannot recommend this film from a comedic perspective either. Acting wasn't bad for the most part, but also not in a way where anybody really had me glued to the screen. Still, this one here is an example of how kids film also attract big name actors like Köhler, Zirner, Becker, Testud and Fürmann. A solid cast for sure. But they did not succeed in making this pretty weak script (sadly pretty tough to care for any of the characters) work. And several actors gave really stereotypical performance that were embarrassing, but not convincing, especially Köhler. I do not recommend the watch. Thumbs down.