"Willkommen in der Patchwork-Hölle" or "Familie mit Hindernissen" is a German/Austrian co-production from 2017, so this movie had its third anniversary not too long ago. Take care: These 90 minutes and an Ariane Krampe Filmproduktion and that one is really dubious in my opinion. It may not include as many crap films as Regina Ziegler, but those that it includes, especially all the "A Summer in" films are as bad as it gets. Pilcher level really. Taking that into account, the outcome here is certainly better than expected. The director is Oliver Schmitz, who despite his name was born in South Africa, and has worked on many multicultural films over the years. I mean is body of work is certainly not perfection, but it is clearly superior compared to the one of writer Sophie Krapoth. As for the cast, it is probably above average for a small screen release. Many cast members here have also delivered on the big screen already and even if they have not, then they are actors who have enjoyed really long television careers. The main character is palyed by Nicolette Krebitz and I kinda like her. On the one hand, this has certainly to do with her looks and you really cannot look any better in your mid-40s than she does here. But also as an actress she won me over a bit here. I think those moments when she talks to the audience could have easily gone wrong, but (also thanks to what she has to say) she somewhat nails them and I was a bit impressed for sure. Apart from her, the most known cast member is probably Franziska Weisz. She is one of several Austrian actors in here, which may explain why this film is an Austrian co-production. Still her role is pretty small this time, slightly wasted perhaps, although i am not as big on her as many others. I must also say that there are many beautiful women in here, but she is not one of my favorites. I am talking about Krebitz, Bitter, Neumeister and Veihelmann (the older one obviously) instead. So basically everybody exept Weisz, Ziegler and Gruber from the non-child actors. Gruber I must say is an actress who has appeared in many many films that I have seen that were bad and in which she was bad too. But here she is alright I suppose. Admittedly she also does not have the material or screen time to ruin this film.
In general, nobody ruined this film, but as you can see from the fact that I gave it only our stars out of ten, it is obvious that I did not approve here overall. There are just too many moments that show us the lack of talent from the writer. It already starts at the beginning. It wasn't the worst moment, but when I see a preview in the very first minute, then I want one here I genuinely wonder how the character ended up in this situation and with how we see her being released from jail, this definitely wasn't the case for me. I must also say that directly linked to this, these scenes with the police officer did not seem as funny to me as it was meant to be. I mean the running gag with her being drunk was not extremely bad and maybe I smiled even once or twice, especially at the very end, but the idea that she keeps running into the same cop again and again in a big city apparently where this film is set was just way too absurd for my taste. There are other weak moments and inclusions. I will just mention some others, even if it is definitely too many to mention them all. As for the daughter (Neumeister's character), when she is really sad about the boy having something with another girl of course, her best friend) and next thing that happens is she is up on the tree and crashes down and falls on another guy and from that moment on, he is apparently her love interest. The "comedy" with the birth control pills was not helping either admittedly towards the very end. Same applies to the scene with the very pregnant woman who just hurt her back and they act as if she was about to get her child. I mean it is okay they hought so the very first moment, but how they turn this into a really long thingey was just not good. Oh and earlier, there is a scene in which one character, the female protagonist in fact, falls asleep at the same time her husband next to her is speaking in a very loud (and angry) voice. Impossible to believe she could really sleep in the face of that audio. Okay, that's enough already. It is these scenes and moments, also like the pseudo drama with Gruber's character's marriage at the end, that make this film what it is overall. A movie that may not be a failure like so many other German television films, but still a movie that is too low on the quality scale for a positive recommendation. I mean like I said I even like many of the cast members in here and still I found it impossible to appreciate it as a whole. It's a thumbs-down and even if I think this could have turned out way worse, I say: Skip the watch here! Not recommended.
In general, nobody ruined this film, but as you can see from the fact that I gave it only our stars out of ten, it is obvious that I did not approve here overall. There are just too many moments that show us the lack of talent from the writer. It already starts at the beginning. It wasn't the worst moment, but when I see a preview in the very first minute, then I want one here I genuinely wonder how the character ended up in this situation and with how we see her being released from jail, this definitely wasn't the case for me. I must also say that directly linked to this, these scenes with the police officer did not seem as funny to me as it was meant to be. I mean the running gag with her being drunk was not extremely bad and maybe I smiled even once or twice, especially at the very end, but the idea that she keeps running into the same cop again and again in a big city apparently where this film is set was just way too absurd for my taste. There are other weak moments and inclusions. I will just mention some others, even if it is definitely too many to mention them all. As for the daughter (Neumeister's character), when she is really sad about the boy having something with another girl of course, her best friend) and next thing that happens is she is up on the tree and crashes down and falls on another guy and from that moment on, he is apparently her love interest. The "comedy" with the birth control pills was not helping either admittedly towards the very end. Same applies to the scene with the very pregnant woman who just hurt her back and they act as if she was about to get her child. I mean it is okay they hought so the very first moment, but how they turn this into a really long thingey was just not good. Oh and earlier, there is a scene in which one character, the female protagonist in fact, falls asleep at the same time her husband next to her is speaking in a very loud (and angry) voice. Impossible to believe she could really sleep in the face of that audio. Okay, that's enough already. It is these scenes and moments, also like the pseudo drama with Gruber's character's marriage at the end, that make this film what it is overall. A movie that may not be a failure like so many other German television films, but still a movie that is too low on the quality scale for a positive recommendation. I mean like I said I even like many of the cast members in here and still I found it impossible to appreciate it as a whole. It's a thumbs-down and even if I think this could have turned out way worse, I say: Skip the watch here! Not recommended.
