"24 Wochen" or "24 Weeks" is a really new German movie and these slightly over 100 minutes already reached great success at awards bodies such as the Berlin Film Festival. The writer an director is Anne Zohra Berrached and with this only being her second work as a filmmaker, after the underwhelming "Zwei Mütter", she is far from being as famous as her lead actors in this 2016 release. Julia Jentsch is known to many for her portrayal of Sophie Scholl in the Oscar-nominated work and Bjarne Mädel was one of the stars (and a crowd favorite) of "Stromberg" (German version of "The Office"), one of the greatest things German television has produced in decades. But back to this film here. They play a couple who are expecting their second child. But things turn dark quickly when they find out from the doctors that the unborn is very sick, will suffer most likely from Down Syndrome. And if that isn't bad enough already, then it is revealed later on that the little one is also suffering from a severe heart condition. For a big part of the film, over an hour, the question is will they have the baby or not, but in the end it becomes fairly clear which path they are going to take. I personally would describe this film as a very liberal movie as it definitely makes it almost impossible to disagree with the couple's final decision, unless you are a really conservative Christian I guess. There even at one point is a mention from Mädel's character about his parents who were like that apparently. But it's much more about the decision than about the process of the couple dealing with their situation. Conflict arise not only between the two, but also between them and their parents, friends, babysitters etc.
The female main character works as a stand-up comedian, which adds a kind of tragicomic aspect to this film for sure. I quite liked this approach. But there were also aspects I did not like. It is perfectly fine to include one sex scene to show how the couple is still attracted to each other, even during the progressed pregnancy, which is a problem for many, but not for them. They are made for one another. But why include another sex scene? Or these nude scenes in the shower. They added almost nothing I must say and I felt they were just clumsy attempts to make the film more controversial, to have more people talk about it. It really does not need this kind of advertisement looking at how good it is. Another minor criticism from me is how quickly Mädel's character completely changes his opinion about who is to decide what will happen and I personally tend to agree with his early statement. At least to some extent. Or another minor issue was the ending. The decision they make to end it with her professional life was nothing I liked too much. I felt the aspect of her work as a stand-up comedian was okay to be included and also added some solid scenes to the film, but it was never the center of it. They missed the perfect moment to end the film when they show her with her baby on her breast. But yeah, you really have to look closely to find any flaws with this film. My personal situation has very little to do with the one of the protagonists, but I can imagine that people who had an abortion or a miscarriage etc. will enjoy this film even much more than I did because it strikes on such a personal level and there really is a great deal of emotion in here, positive as well as negative. A definite contender for best German film of 2016 and by now it is also a contender for Best Film 2016 in general taking all other countries into account. This is a really touching statement and a lot of it is thanks to Jentsch and (to a slightly lesser extent) Mädel. I highly recommend the watch, in particular to people with children or people who were in a similar situation as I mentioned before. This film is also a really heartfelt pro-Down Syndrome people statement. Go see it please.
The female main character works as a stand-up comedian, which adds a kind of tragicomic aspect to this film for sure. I quite liked this approach. But there were also aspects I did not like. It is perfectly fine to include one sex scene to show how the couple is still attracted to each other, even during the progressed pregnancy, which is a problem for many, but not for them. They are made for one another. But why include another sex scene? Or these nude scenes in the shower. They added almost nothing I must say and I felt they were just clumsy attempts to make the film more controversial, to have more people talk about it. It really does not need this kind of advertisement looking at how good it is. Another minor criticism from me is how quickly Mädel's character completely changes his opinion about who is to decide what will happen and I personally tend to agree with his early statement. At least to some extent. Or another minor issue was the ending. The decision they make to end it with her professional life was nothing I liked too much. I felt the aspect of her work as a stand-up comedian was okay to be included and also added some solid scenes to the film, but it was never the center of it. They missed the perfect moment to end the film when they show her with her baby on her breast. But yeah, you really have to look closely to find any flaws with this film. My personal situation has very little to do with the one of the protagonists, but I can imagine that people who had an abortion or a miscarriage etc. will enjoy this film even much more than I did because it strikes on such a personal level and there really is a great deal of emotion in here, positive as well as negative. A definite contender for best German film of 2016 and by now it is also a contender for Best Film 2016 in general taking all other countries into account. This is a really touching statement and a lot of it is thanks to Jentsch and (to a slightly lesser extent) Mädel. I highly recommend the watch, in particular to people with children or people who were in a similar situation as I mentioned before. This film is also a really heartfelt pro-Down Syndrome people statement. Go see it please.