"Eine Chance für die Liebe", which means "A Chance for Love", is a German television film from 2006, so this one will soon have its 15th anniversary. The writer is Michael Baier and he has mostly worked on German television shos, most of them not really good gently-speaking. The director is Dirk Regel and he has been in charge of many television films here in Germany as the man behind the camera, but there I really cannot be gentle anymore because most of them were pretty horrible. So for these two, quantity (and they were definitely prolific) definitely does not mean quality. Your expectations for this film should be really low and even then, you will probably be disappointed. As for the cast, the central character is palyed by Jutta Speidel and that confirms it somehow becaue she also has starred in many films that we call "Schmonzetten" here in Germany, which means cheese romance movies that take themselves pretty seriously, but artistically have no right to do so. Frequently, these are produced by Ziegler Filmproduction, this one here not I think and also a more neutral term is "Herzkino" (heart cinema), although these films are not even close to being good enough for the small screen, so don't even talk about the big screen. As for the basics, it runs for 90 minutes almost like they do most of the time and there are more known names here in the cast. Michael Mendl has proved that he can gove strong performances if his characters are written well and he is definitely not the worst aspect about this film. Tim Sander was quite a big star on German daily soap opera GZSZ and especially young audiences loved him. However, he never managed a successful transition after he left the show and even here he is cast for a character that adds almost nothing story-wise. Marie Gruber was perhaps the worst and honestly in her scenes here she makes Speidel look like an acting goddess. Tough to stomach. Otto Mellies is a really experienced actor and has been for decades. He is certainly much better than this movie here. And finally Florian David Fitz is actually among Germany's biggest stars right now, also at the cinema, so interesting to see how he started before he became popular. Well, he had to eat too I suppose.
Now I will say a few words on why I thought this was such a horrible film. Admittedly, in favor of the actors you can say that even the greatest actors on the planets could not have made this script work. It is that bad. And it is really about every single cast member. Debatable if the father of the family really could have lost track of his wife and marriage that much that all that happened could have happened, but I guess they had to depict it this way because they did not want audience members to be mad at the female protagonist why she is going out with another man she was once a couple with. For pseudo drama we also get the ridiculous cancer story. This one really hits rock-bottk towards the end. Now if she had been in a state where an operation would have helped, even been essential, then why oh why wasn't it performed in the first place. Instead, for all kinds of horrible pseudo drama, the tumor is removed at the end right after she collapses and of course she is fine (for now) and immediately worries about other people. This involves the newborn baby (yep!) and this story is mostly about the protagonist's daughter. It is really ridiculous how she does not want to see the father of the kid because a former relationship of the man was sitting on a sofa next to him. Unreal. Now this woman should never become a mother, but instead seek psychiatric help with her jealousy. Obviously she was ready to refuse the child its father because of her delusions. Still obviously she is nice and likable enough for the dad to still want her back at any cost despite the trouble she obviously is. Now as for the unrealistic part here, it is basically that she child was immediately there before anybody was at the hospital to support her. Unreal. How fast did that go? It just doesn't make any sense and it feels as if the screen writer already knew and thus included a nurse's comment and she says something like it was so fast it was a new world record. And another moment and then it is enough. I think it was Mellies in this one scene who is there when the female protagonist experiences joy again when playing the piano. One moment her playing is soulless and unfulfilling, then a few words by her former teacher and all of a sudden her playing is joyful and rewarding. Exact opposites. Within seconds. Now I cannot comment on the style and quality of the music from both occasions, but it is ridiculous we are supposed to believe such a major improvement was possible. And these were just three examples on why the film is not a success by any definition. What was up towards the end with the police husband sending out his men to find his wife? Isn't there a rule that no investigations are happening before somebody is missing for 48 hours or so? I am not sure, but seems he does not care too much for the rules. Luckily he does not beat up the suitor (Mendl), but even without that it is still a mess. The whole story about the other guy trying to get her to be with him because he still loves her after all these years includes many weak moments too. You will recognize them when you see them, no need to go any further into detail. Overall, a pretty bad film and the only reason why I would say it is not worst-of-the-year material is that there are really many other horrible films made for German television, most likely also from 2006 that have an even worse cast. Still do yourself a favor and watch something else instead.
Now I will say a few words on why I thought this was such a horrible film. Admittedly, in favor of the actors you can say that even the greatest actors on the planets could not have made this script work. It is that bad. And it is really about every single cast member. Debatable if the father of the family really could have lost track of his wife and marriage that much that all that happened could have happened, but I guess they had to depict it this way because they did not want audience members to be mad at the female protagonist why she is going out with another man she was once a couple with. For pseudo drama we also get the ridiculous cancer story. This one really hits rock-bottk towards the end. Now if she had been in a state where an operation would have helped, even been essential, then why oh why wasn't it performed in the first place. Instead, for all kinds of horrible pseudo drama, the tumor is removed at the end right after she collapses and of course she is fine (for now) and immediately worries about other people. This involves the newborn baby (yep!) and this story is mostly about the protagonist's daughter. It is really ridiculous how she does not want to see the father of the kid because a former relationship of the man was sitting on a sofa next to him. Unreal. Now this woman should never become a mother, but instead seek psychiatric help with her jealousy. Obviously she was ready to refuse the child its father because of her delusions. Still obviously she is nice and likable enough for the dad to still want her back at any cost despite the trouble she obviously is. Now as for the unrealistic part here, it is basically that she child was immediately there before anybody was at the hospital to support her. Unreal. How fast did that go? It just doesn't make any sense and it feels as if the screen writer already knew and thus included a nurse's comment and she says something like it was so fast it was a new world record. And another moment and then it is enough. I think it was Mellies in this one scene who is there when the female protagonist experiences joy again when playing the piano. One moment her playing is soulless and unfulfilling, then a few words by her former teacher and all of a sudden her playing is joyful and rewarding. Exact opposites. Within seconds. Now I cannot comment on the style and quality of the music from both occasions, but it is ridiculous we are supposed to believe such a major improvement was possible. And these were just three examples on why the film is not a success by any definition. What was up towards the end with the police husband sending out his men to find his wife? Isn't there a rule that no investigations are happening before somebody is missing for 48 hours or so? I am not sure, but seems he does not care too much for the rules. Luckily he does not beat up the suitor (Mendl), but even without that it is still a mess. The whole story about the other guy trying to get her to be with him because he still loves her after all these years includes many weak moments too. You will recognize them when you see them, no need to go any further into detail. Overall, a pretty bad film and the only reason why I would say it is not worst-of-the-year material is that there are really many other horrible films made for German television, most likely also from 2006 that have an even worse cast. Still do yourself a favor and watch something else instead.
