"Alles inklusive" or "All inclusive" or "The Whole Shebang" is a German movie from 2014, so two more years until this one has its 5th anniversary, maybe less depending on when you read this review. Doris Dörrie has been among Germany's female filmmaking elite for a long time and here we got one of her most recent efforts. She wrote the novel, adapted it and eventually also directed her script. It runs for almost two hours and the good news is that it really does not have many lengths for this pretty massive running time. This also has to do with the cast as Elsner, Uhl, Schönemann, Prahl and 2-3 others are well-known and liked performers here in Germany that have appeared in several fairly famous films over the years. This is probably not their most known work, but another interesting project for their body of work. This is basically typical Dörrie stuff, a mix of comedy and drama, still going for authenticity and realism, a touch of romance and foreign culture (though not Asia this time) plus shadows from the past haunting some of the protagonists in the present. I would say that while this film is not as low as a Schweighöfer dramedy for example, it still struggles at times with staying realistic, a core problem in German comedies from the 21st century. Okay, the random encounter between Elsner and Schönemann, the sex preferences by Hinrichs' character (like the actor a lot) and then it would have been enough if we are supposed to believe this is based on real characters and events. Or lets say it is about credible characters and events. But then the stuff with the suicide references at the end and the dog and the relationship between Uhl's character and Schönemann's and at some point, it is just too much and this line was definitely reached and crossed in here. Quite a shame as this movie has several cast members that I do like a lot and it could have been a much better movie. It is not as disastrously bad as Dörrie's most recent film about Fukushima, but it is still one of her weaker efforts for sure and it confirms the tendency that with her recent stuff she has almost always disappointed and I am not sure if she has another quality piece like "Erleuchtung garantiert" in her. I hope so, but I have major doubts. This one here is entertainment for the sake being entertaining and not telling a good story. Thumbs down, don't watch.
