"Ein Hauptgewinn für Papa", which means "The Big Prize for Daddy", or just "Der Hauptgewinn" is a German television film from 2006, so this one will have its 15th anniversary next year. The director here is Bodo Fürneisen and the writer is Stefan Rogall. Their bodies of work seem pretty similar to me, pretty experienced, but not too much quality, still admittedly also not as bad as the bodies of work from many other German small screen filmmakers. The running time here is 1.5 hours (or slightly under) as it is almost always the case with television releases here in my country, so the 76 minutes listed here on imdb are not correct I believe. As for the cast, it is roughly expected. Most of the protagonists are experienced television actors in here and this also includes lead actor Heio von Stetten. He turns 60 this year, so he was in his mid-40s back then and he looks slightly younger I'd say. I cannot say too much negative about him here. He is alright given the material. Looking at what he had to work with, i would even say he elevated the material at times. Sadly the material was so low that it really was not sufficient. The best example is Anica Dobra and how she enters the picture, namely with that scene and the car collision and this is also how her character and von Stetten's meet. This was cringeworthy enough, but what is even worse is that they thought this was funny, so they used it as a running gag and brought the situation back at the very end with another male character implying he is the new love interest to Dobra's character. And while the audience was not supposed to cheer for her getting together with the male protagonist, she also was absolutely not an antagonist, but likable, so of course she gets a rushed-in happy ending too. The one they ant people to cheer for is late actress' Dana Vávrová's character. I mean her character is likable, but it felt definitely a bit manipulative to me how she is the "normal" woman and they want "normal" females in the audience identify with her, although they could not be any more different. I mean she is an astro scientist. The people in the audience are housewives mostly. Self-explanatory I guess. Also certainly a bit cringeworthy when we have HvS's character show Dobra's his card and it says astro scientist. That moment was actually so bad it was almost funny.
However, most of the other bad moments were not funny at all. This applies especially to the car collisons happening frequently that I already mentioned earlier and things get way worse even when they get in the police and the faces they make. Oh well. As for the romantic drama, the idea that he would not get together with Vávrová's character because they planned two dates and both did not really work out fine was very much on the pseudo dramatic side. Of course they would get together. Or look at the title. This is obviously not meant related to the red sports car he receives (or not meant primarily at least), but meant that he finds the woman of his dreams that he will spend the rest of his life together. Sigh. I feel bad for people who believe anything they see in this film. It's all make-believe. Also the title can be seen as said from the perspective of the male protagonist's offspring, which is strange because said offspring has literally almost no impact on the story as a whole. So yes, this film fails (just like they always do) with creating realistic dialogue for young characters. It felt so written. One example is the "I am not at home" by the daughter when her father missed her great concert. Or how the woman he asks when he is late for the concert knows immediately it is him, the evil father who missed this occasion. I cringed a lot. Or take Elisabeth Wiedemann. Frequently these films are bad, but at least the older actors give okay performance. Not so for her. I know I should not talk negatively about her because she has died already, but she was really bad. The first scene on the phone with her son was already impossible to stomach with her overacting and it stays that way for the rest of the film. Luckily, she is not in too many scenes. Okay, what else? Oh yeah Ingo Naujoks is in this film, but only with a brief cameo as he is the one getting the sports car to the main character. I mean this alone was already huge coincidence, enough for three films to win something like that out of nowhere, but not enoguh for this film. They added more and more. Dobra's character's behavior as also really bizarre. I mean she is clearly romantically interested in the central character. Shows up out of nowhere at his place making food for him and the kids and then when he finally developed interest in her and wants to kiss her, all of a sudden she plays hard to get, only to make clear towards the end that she could have imagined a future with him for sure. It makes no sense at all. Almost nothing from this film does and I feel a bit bad for von Stetten because he has the range for better films. Then again, nobody forced him to agree to appear in here, so not too much sympathy. Overall, I would like to say that while this is a pretty bad film (in the negative sense), it is still nowhere near the worst German afternoon television has to offer. So it is a really sad state of affairs there if this movie is average for this time and medium and somewhere in the middle quality-wise. I guess this is enough then. Obviously I give this film a thumbs-down and I highly recommend to keep your distance. Oh yeah, the two investors, who eventually turn into the closest to antagonists this film has to offer are also really forgettable (and unrealistic), even if at least one of them has a familiar face. And don't get me started about the sob story with the deceased partner of the protagonist. Kinda ironic Vávrová's character becomes his new partner with how tragic her life became not a long time after this movie. Okay, now I am drifting away. So I shall really stop. Skip the watch at any cost.
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