"Carl & Bertha" is a German small screen movie from 2011, so this one had its 5th anniversary last year, which means it is neither a particularly new or old film. It runs for pretty much exactly 1.5 hours and is among the more known efforts by writer Rogall and director Endemann, both fairly experienced and still working today too. The cast includes Ken Duken and Felicitas Woll and these two are by far the most known cast members in here, so no surprise they are playing the title characters. But while I personally believe that in general the looks may be better than the range for these two, they overall did a decent job here. The names Carl and Bertha will probably not really ring a bell with most people, but when you hear the name of global player Bent, this is certainly something completely different. So here we have mostly Carl before his breakthrough and biggest invention and we get to witness his struggles on all fronts, the professional and private ones. The professional include lack of money of course, his struggles with co-workers, his reputation, negotiations with clients and investors as well as competitors (Daimler) being mentioned. This is probably a lot more than the private struggles, which for once include his disapproving father-in-law. But still there are many other references to his private, mostly married life that were handled nicely enough. I think it is a pretty well-done character study, not just about Carl, but about Martha too. References about the professional life are frequent, but it is never that deep down or complicated that you need to have an interest in cars or motors as my complete disinterest in both did not keep me from having a solid time seeing this one. Costumes, art direction and set decoration were convincing too. I really enjoyed the watch here overall. This film was a positive surprise, especially as the only thing I really like about the two lead actors in general are Woll's looks. A bit surprised this got almost no awards recognition at all as this is one that stands out in terms of German television films and there is really a lot of garbage in that field these days. Has been for a while. This film is a nice exception that may not reach greatness or anything, but is rock solid from start to finish. I think you should see it.