"Ihr mich auch" is a German television film from 2010, November 2010 to be precise, so not too long anymore until this one has its 10th anniversary. It is a ZDF production and run for 1.5 hours as they usually do. The director is Hans-Günther Bücking and he has an okay body of work I'd say, not too bad. Most of the time he was a cinematographer and not the director. Bücking has also worked on the long-running series "Wilsberg" on several occasions, which may explain why Rita Russek is the lead actres in this film we have here. I will get to that a bit later on. The screenplay is by Annemarie Schoenle and about her I cannot say anything positive. Her body of work includes several failures and no quality whatsoever. Both director and writer have been in the film industry since the early 1990s apparently, so even back in 2010 when this was made, they were already pretty experienced. Now a few words about the cast: At the center of it all is Russek of course and the more I see from her, the less I like her. She is tolerable as a supporting actress on "Wilsberg", but lead actress material she certainly has not and if the script is already this bad, it takes a special absence of talent to turn it into something even worse, which she manages. There are two other actors I am familiar with. Götz Schubert plays a neighbor who keeps having intercourse with young women. Wittenborn plays a colleague who keeps having intercourse with Russek's character. Sadly the movie is never about anybody else than Russek's character really, which disappointed me the most because I think Wittenborn is a decent actor and I kinda like him. But his character here is also just a gimmicky caricature and nothing to be taken seriously. In terms of that approach, I am a bit surprised this is listed as a comedy here on imdb because there are at least as many dramatic moments. Oh well, there are others I recognize: Gerhard Garbers from "Adelheid" and Nadja Becker from "Stromberg" although she looks so different in that series. Both have very limited screen time though. I mentioned the film's title in the title of my review and this title is basically a response to somebody saying something obscene like "kiss my ass" (or lick as we say in german) and it means that you can do the same. So yeah, certainly not a very inspired title, but it fits in well with the lack of general class from this film and its protagonist, who e are supposed to see as likable, but I did not do so at all, probably becausse of all the embarrassingly unrealistic and unauthentic ways in which she was written as a victim.
She is bullied by her superior because of her age, thus discriminated against for ageism reasons. Her only real friend at the company starts an affair with said superior and becomes an antagonist too. At least for a little while. Her lover won't leave his wife for her and she just plays second fiddle. And all that despite her being such a kind and lovable woman. Yet determined too of course. She works for a fashion enterprise as we find out, a clothing manufacturer, and makes approximately 5k a month. So she is also a successful and aspiring woman. We really need to cheer for her, don't we? And we need to be in favor of what she does in Italy at the very end, which is basically the result of a crime and as if that was not bad enough already, are we really supposed to believe she collaborates with the younger colleague on a scheme like that that will 100% have them fired after the two weren't even friends in-between anymore. Oh yeah, the scum boss and what he did with the younger employee sure justified it and makes it authentic. Guess again! Honestly, before that, after the weak first half I felt that maybe the film was getting a bit better here and there and that it was not 100% failure, but then that happened and it sure is failure all along. And it gets even worse when we find out that she does not only not get fired, but promoted to the position that the main antagonist had before that. Okay. While the latter has to deal with finances now. So yeah, the 100% happy ending is surely also included for our brave heroine here. Sigh. This film, especially the last 20 minutes, has nothing to do with reality at all. In real life, she would have left the enterprise a long time ago or kept suffering, but nothing that happened in this movie, would have happened here. And don#t even get me started about the convenient inclusion of child labor in India to ditch the bad guy eventually. Or how he applauds our brave heroine before the closing credits roll in and has some respect for her finally. Oh my. And this is really only from the last quarter of the film. There is so much more wrong with it before that already. One example would be Schubert's character's heart attack or whatever he is having and Russek's character has to do something because the young girl with him apparently does not even know how to call an ambulance. Or ho we find out Russek's character's husband has died. More cheap emotions there from us with no creative effort from the writer. Or the scene with the bratty young colleague who wears an outfits that Russek's character does not approve of at all. I really cannot say anything poitive about this movie and I feel bad for people actually falling for this scam. Also how once again all the male characters are depicted as incompetent at best, vile at worst. Another anti-male film from ARD and ZDF. No surprise here. This may not be another crappy Degeto production, but it is just as bad. I highly recommend that you skip the watch. Shameful this is still on a decade after it was made. Disgusting. You GEZ money at work. Stand up. And please, please don#t tell me this movie is a powerful statement against ageism or discrimination at work. It is the exact opposite. So basic and vain that it hurts subjects that really would have needed strong support and powerful statements. Truly shameful. Would have been better if this film never had been made. Fat thumbs-down.
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