"Woran dein Herz hängt" or "Die kleinen Dinge des Lebens" is a German television movie from summer 2009, so this one is already over a decade old now. The director and co-writer here is Donald Kraemer and looking at the quality of these almost 1.5 hours I cannot say I am too said he has not worked on new projects in a long time, even longer if we only focus on writing credits. Normally I say it is not a bad thing by definition if the director is also part of the writing team, but here it shows that neither of the two possess any talent when it comes to screenplay. Co-writer here is the slightly more experienced Volker Krappen (at least in terms of writing), but the name sounding so similar to "crappy" is the truth and a funny coincidence. It's funny because it is true. There are many moments in this movie that are really cringeworthy. It makes me a bit sad to see Belgian actress Julia Koschitz on board here because I like her otherwise and I always thought she is a really stunning beauty. But everything else about this film was so horrible that not even her convincing looks could slightly win me over. She normally also does not star in rubbish films like this one here.. I guess she thought it could be a nice character study and the psychological issues for her character could turn this into a quality project, but she was rong. The inclusion of Oliver Mommsen is pretty telling too. He has a history of violence and with "violence" I mean films and projects that have zero creativity and talent attached to them and are pseudo-dramatic kotschy romance garbage films. This description also fits this film here pretty nicely. So surprise that Harder, Hollinderbäumer (unbearable on the propaganda heute show otherwise) and maybe also Danoski are on board here. They all have no talent when it comes to versatility and the explanation that her characters and limited screen time kept them from delivering a more memorable portrayal here is not valid. It's all about the absence of talent. Same is true for child actor Junias Marlon. Boy was he bad and he did not even have the material to really leave such a negative impact, but it was still plain horrible. He literally messed up every single line delivery and I refuse to bellieve he is still acting on a regular basis. His portrayal here was so low honestly that I also think acting school cannot turn him into a decent performer.
Okay some specific moments about this film that I really disliked. First of all, just a minor thing, but the onion references were cringeworthy and I am supposed to believe they were quote? Ugh you must be really simple to do so. And don't even get me started about the way in which they imply there could be children in the future for these two at the very end. Cringeworthy stuff. Let's hope they won't, so there will not be another film. Oh well, over a decade later probably not gonna happen. Luckily. The worst scene of them all is probably when they are going to that concert and what happens when tehy are refused to enter. Where they end up I mean. Yeah right there is not a single person to stop them from entering the stage. Then the key plot idea that the female protagonist is a hoarder. In general, I'd say this could have been something to make the film slightly better with the romance aspect (and most performances) being total garbage. But the way they wrote it is truly offensive and an insult to those who actually suffer from this disorder. The ending was the best example. It's bad enough that she already says somethhing like that she will get beat her illness with him at her side, but that was kinda alright because she could falsely assume so as she was on a bit of a high when she said so, but what follows afterwards is an abomination. I do not really use this word frequently, but here it fits. Are we really supposed to believe that without real therapy or professional help, it takes her only days, weeks max, to easily get all this stuff out of her apartment and feel happy doing so as if it wwas not a challenge at all. And why does she remove everything immediately? She is not moving in with the guy or so right? Anyway, how the two dealt with each other in this situation was also written really poorly. Like the pretty disrespectful comment from him when he says that you don't automatically become a hoarder when your partner dies (his language was rougher even), which shows that you could think he has zero understanding for her issues and at the same time we are supposed to believe that he totally understands and loves her? It all felt so fake. Also these pseudo dramatic struggles how he initially says that he won't be able to deal with that and of course, no surprise, he changes his opinion so quickly and confesses his love to her at her workplace while everybody else is behind him in the queue. And the one guy who is complaining and afterward smiling fondly because of the two kissing is also a prime example of bad acting and how you don't need a lot of screen time to make sure people see you are not talented. Of course, again the script is not helping. Finally, I want to mention something that you find in this movie and also in many other movies, namely the idea that the male protagonist is somebody who initially has the task to work against the female protagonist, but they fall in love of course. And this confession about why he showed up in her life is used as a crucial plot point for big (pseudo) drama towards the end, to create a major conflict that is about to ruin everything, but only the dumb audience members will believe there is an option they do not get together in the end because of that. It is forgotten as quickly as everything else. I also wondered how people never considered taking the boy away from her. Or her realizing it would be the best for the child. Oh well. So yeah, this film is really bad all in all and I think it should not be shown on TV anymore because most of all the illness here is depicted in a way where the filmmakers should be ashamed and there are several other repulsive moments like when the old guy is rushed to the hospital. Pseudo drama at its most embarrassing, just like the entire landlord/tenants story here. Keep your distance. Koschitz' beauty alone cannot carry this film obviously and if you still want to see her, I suggest you go for another of her many movies. "Shoppen" for example would be a magnificent choice, but honestly I am pretty positive that (almost) everything in her body of work is on a higher level than this one here. Not that it needs a lot for that admittedly.
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