"Vaterherz", which means "Father's Heart", is a German television movie from 2007, so soon 15 years old and this one runs for 1.5 hours like they almost always to. The director here is Gabi Kubach and the script is by Ulrich del Mestre, which sounds somewhat exotic, but truth and reality is that both have a body of work full of failures from the long time during which they were active in the German film/television industry. They are both retired now and that is probably a good thing. As for this film here, the outcome is pretty horrible at times as well. The one person I want to say surprised me in a positive way was Francis Fulton-Smith, the lead actor here, because I have seen him in other projects and frequently he was not good at all. But it was somewhat impressive how he even made this horrible script wwork here and there and with a better screenplay he actually could have turned this into a quality movie. Sadly, he is the only positive aspect really. Ursula Buschhorn was really bad at times ith her line delivery and the character itself was an insult to people actually suffering from burn-out and/or depression. Yeah, she just runs away and needs time for herself for a while okay. No need for professional help or so and still the judge rules in her favor when it comes to the custory battle that by the way feels really rushed how quickly it all happens. Same is true on other occasions, like really the mother is gone for a few days and immediately the child gets worse at school to a level that gets a teacher to send child control to the boy's home? Not making any sense. The affair (more of a ONS) the male protagonist has with a colleague who is quite a schemer as we find out was not too great either, but also not among the worst aspects of the film. Another really negative deal-breaker was the child performance by Maximilian Werner here. He was not good at all and also almost all he had to say did not feel authentic, but written, most of all the comment he makes about his dad's colleague that she wants more from him. And please don't tell me all he says and does was because he is a smart and empathic kid. Another rock-bottom moment is the car crash scene towards the end where they used slow motion. Now I don't know what they were doing there. Thought they'd be Hollywood for a moment huh? Truth is that was the orst pseudo drama one could imagine, of course with the immediate addition that the victim of the crash (who so selflessly saved the boy) was fine overall at the hospital. This was supposed to be the big escalation from the parents arguing with each other on the shoulders of the kid I guess. Gone very wrong.
There's more. The courtroom scenes felt Barbara Salesch level or even worse, especially how the judge interacts with everybody, including the boy. The classroom escalation scene relatively early does not feel too good either and very cringeworthy. Already the introduction to it with the boy saying he told it to a friend and that friend has a very chatty other friend. This preparation could not save anything though. It was a mess. The boy's screaming about the mother cheating on her man was bad already, but hat was really rock-bottom was the female friend screaming at the other friend. Holy moly, been a while since I saw a scene this bad between child actors. I hope they considerably improve or really stay away from acting for the rest of their lives. So yeah, overall, this film is a mess, which also should become somewhat obvious by the inclusion of daily soap heartthrob Torsten Feller here, even if it is just a pretty small part. Some of the moments were actually so bad that I had to laugh at them and if that is almost the only positive thing I can say that says a bit about the film. FFS was okay like I mentioned already and I also kinda liked the ending that they did not come up with a forced and rushed moment, in which the two are a couple again, but the divorce is happening. It was a bit unexpected and honestly with this awfully predictable film, that alone was already enough for a slight increase in quality. I honestly thought I could give this film at least 2 stars out of 5, but all in all, this is just too bad and it's impossible to say thia film was not a failure, so 1 star is the way to go (without half stars). Finally, one more example, namely how the woman really breaks up with her man when he tries to hug her and how the actress performs in this scene. Like I said: highly offensive to people who really have mental disorders. Of course, Buschhorn had the most challenging role here from everybody and the script definitely did not do her any favors, but still, a professional actress playing a key character in a film that airs on national television should be able to do better than that. My suggestion is you stay far far away from this film. Highly not recommended, especially because the film itself and also the really overthe-top soundtrack gave me the impression this film (and the filmmakers behind it) took itself so seriously that they thought they were delivering on "Kramer vs. Kramer" level here. As you have read until here, you are aware now that I could not disagree more.
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