"Almuth und Rita räumen auf" is a German television film from 2016, so this one will soon have its fifth anniversary. The director and one of the two writers is Nikolai Müllerschön. Admittedly his body of work does not exactly ooze talent or quality and it's pretty weak, but it still must be said in his favor that by no means it is as horrible as the co-writer's body of work. You can check out her name yourself if you want to. I don't want to mention it because from what I have seen here, there is no reason why she should be known or work in the film industry. I see absolutely no talent there. By the way, these almost 1.5 hours we have here are a sequel and Müllerschön also worked on the original movie that was released two years earlier. I have not seen that one, but I generally think that it should never be required to watch one film in order to appreciate another. And besides, I am pretty sure that even if I had seen it, there would be almost nothing to appreciate for me in this one here nonetheless. The good news is really that looking at the time passed since then, it seems extremely unlikely that there will be a third movie and this is definitely the correct decision because two are already one too many. Or probably even two to many, but I shall wait with my final judgment there until I have seen the first film, although I am really not looking forward to it at all.
Even film buffs like myself have not head of the supporting cast members in here, but the two leads are pretty known here in Germany and really experienced. I am of course talking about Senta Berger and Cornelia Froboess and from the latter's photo here on imdb right now you can see that she already worked as a child actress way over half a century ago. The sad thing , however, is that, even with her long experience, there is almost no talent, range and versatility to her from what I have seen here. She plays the character in here ho is more of a simple woman, but has made many experiences throughout her life that still taught her how to act accurately in specific situations. Sadly, the actress did not lear how to act during this long career. If she had, then maybe her character here would not feel entirely fake and staged and you never have the impression as if you are watching genuine characters. Or at least not her character. Senta Berger did a slightly better job, but this was also only mostly due to the fact that her co-lead was this bad. The biggest supporting player, played by Patricia Aulitzky (who is Austrian like her film mother Berger), also adds very little. While one character deals with her man dying, the other deals with her man cheating on her and in the middle of this is Berger's character who has to comfort them both. The one who lost her man because he simply did not wake up in the morning is Froboess' character and her portrayal was so bad that honestly, like I wrote in the title of my review, to me it felt almost offensive to people who really lost a dear one. I have rarely seen a worse portrayal of grief linked to such a specific situation. She was really hitting all the wrong notes in these slightly challenging scenes. Shockingly bad. Away from the idea of her losing her man, things did not go any better. Looking at how this turned out, Froboess was completely miscast because the role was just way too big for her. And if I say that about a German television film, that is pretty self-explanatory. I was about to turn off my television during the opera crying scene. She may appear as if she is suffering, but the ones who really are (or should be) are those who watch this film.
Also near the end when she talks to Berger's character about the latter's romance with another man it is tough to stomach. There is a mix of monologue and wisdom that she gives to her friend and it's impossible to deal with because the line delivery as ell as the writing is this poor. Okay what else is there to say. I already mentioned Aulitzky. Her character was there to get in some depth about a struggling mother-daughter story, but it's not working out at all. When the woman tells her mother something like she never knew a more lonely person, it's pretentious in the fifth degree, but there is no proper elaboration, no depth to these characters. The best example is already how Berger's character was written. They wanted to show us what a strong independent woman she is and how do they do that? By giving the film a twist according to which she does not end up together with the man she has at least slight feelings for. This was just to keep the action female here. One male is a cheater, another is dead and the third is not good enough. Oh yeah, there is a fourth too. He seems nice actually, but then he makes bizarre racist statements ignoring his own ethnicity. But hey, it's okay he is not German, he gets away with it. But imagine how it would immediately have been a main antagonist if a German said something like that. Not matter how good his tea may be. Another completely anti-male movie we have here and sadly these happen (way too) often with the filmmakers' desire to attract mostly female audiences because they know males would not watch it anyway, or just a really tiny percentage. By the way, as for Berger's character's love story. I usually really like it if they do not come up with a fake happy ending that feels really forced, but here they took another route, which is actually not a bad approach, but still they totally messed it up. Anyway, the weakest part of the film is probably the conflict at the end. This is also not unusual at all that it is the weakest part in these German small screen releases and that there is a conflict too because in like 90% ogf the cases it feels forced and unnatural and just for the sake of creating drama before there is happy closure again and everybody is happy. Well, let's say the simple people are happy. Here it is about an argument between the two women that made almost no sense at all that it would result in the two going their own paths and it was cringeworthy how they emphasized the gravity of this argument even more by showing us that Froboess' character has no intention to make up when Berger's comes for her. By the way, you have never seen somebody lose a flat and move in somewhere else as fast as in this film. They were literally giving the audience the middle finger there, also with the landlady and what she says about where Froboess' character went. How did she even know all this? Plain terrible Anyway, of course right at the moment when you could feel that it is somewhat acceptable that the two do not want to stay in touch anymore, Froboess' character all of a sudden opens up again and the two are best friends all of a sudden again. I mean their awesome connection is too strong for them to lose each other because of such a conflict right? I am honestly out of words for this travesty. This film is an abomination. Highly not recommended. Absolutely disgusting that these television stations force people to pay double-digit figures each and every month, so they can make horrible films like this one. A scandal. Do not watch, even if you like one (or even two) of the actresses. Massive thumbs-down. And no comment on the quote about old people having sex very early on hen they leave after the birthday celebration. Oh how modern and open-minded they are to talk about this despite their age(s). No words for this nonsense. I must stop or I will throw up.
Even film buffs like myself have not head of the supporting cast members in here, but the two leads are pretty known here in Germany and really experienced. I am of course talking about Senta Berger and Cornelia Froboess and from the latter's photo here on imdb right now you can see that she already worked as a child actress way over half a century ago. The sad thing , however, is that, even with her long experience, there is almost no talent, range and versatility to her from what I have seen here. She plays the character in here ho is more of a simple woman, but has made many experiences throughout her life that still taught her how to act accurately in specific situations. Sadly, the actress did not lear how to act during this long career. If she had, then maybe her character here would not feel entirely fake and staged and you never have the impression as if you are watching genuine characters. Or at least not her character. Senta Berger did a slightly better job, but this was also only mostly due to the fact that her co-lead was this bad. The biggest supporting player, played by Patricia Aulitzky (who is Austrian like her film mother Berger), also adds very little. While one character deals with her man dying, the other deals with her man cheating on her and in the middle of this is Berger's character who has to comfort them both. The one who lost her man because he simply did not wake up in the morning is Froboess' character and her portrayal was so bad that honestly, like I wrote in the title of my review, to me it felt almost offensive to people who really lost a dear one. I have rarely seen a worse portrayal of grief linked to such a specific situation. She was really hitting all the wrong notes in these slightly challenging scenes. Shockingly bad. Away from the idea of her losing her man, things did not go any better. Looking at how this turned out, Froboess was completely miscast because the role was just way too big for her. And if I say that about a German television film, that is pretty self-explanatory. I was about to turn off my television during the opera crying scene. She may appear as if she is suffering, but the ones who really are (or should be) are those who watch this film.
Also near the end when she talks to Berger's character about the latter's romance with another man it is tough to stomach. There is a mix of monologue and wisdom that she gives to her friend and it's impossible to deal with because the line delivery as ell as the writing is this poor. Okay what else is there to say. I already mentioned Aulitzky. Her character was there to get in some depth about a struggling mother-daughter story, but it's not working out at all. When the woman tells her mother something like she never knew a more lonely person, it's pretentious in the fifth degree, but there is no proper elaboration, no depth to these characters. The best example is already how Berger's character was written. They wanted to show us what a strong independent woman she is and how do they do that? By giving the film a twist according to which she does not end up together with the man she has at least slight feelings for. This was just to keep the action female here. One male is a cheater, another is dead and the third is not good enough. Oh yeah, there is a fourth too. He seems nice actually, but then he makes bizarre racist statements ignoring his own ethnicity. But hey, it's okay he is not German, he gets away with it. But imagine how it would immediately have been a main antagonist if a German said something like that. Not matter how good his tea may be. Another completely anti-male movie we have here and sadly these happen (way too) often with the filmmakers' desire to attract mostly female audiences because they know males would not watch it anyway, or just a really tiny percentage. By the way, as for Berger's character's love story. I usually really like it if they do not come up with a fake happy ending that feels really forced, but here they took another route, which is actually not a bad approach, but still they totally messed it up. Anyway, the weakest part of the film is probably the conflict at the end. This is also not unusual at all that it is the weakest part in these German small screen releases and that there is a conflict too because in like 90% ogf the cases it feels forced and unnatural and just for the sake of creating drama before there is happy closure again and everybody is happy. Well, let's say the simple people are happy. Here it is about an argument between the two women that made almost no sense at all that it would result in the two going their own paths and it was cringeworthy how they emphasized the gravity of this argument even more by showing us that Froboess' character has no intention to make up when Berger's comes for her. By the way, you have never seen somebody lose a flat and move in somewhere else as fast as in this film. They were literally giving the audience the middle finger there, also with the landlady and what she says about where Froboess' character went. How did she even know all this? Plain terrible Anyway, of course right at the moment when you could feel that it is somewhat acceptable that the two do not want to stay in touch anymore, Froboess' character all of a sudden opens up again and the two are best friends all of a sudden again. I mean their awesome connection is too strong for them to lose each other because of such a conflict right? I am honestly out of words for this travesty. This film is an abomination. Highly not recommended. Absolutely disgusting that these television stations force people to pay double-digit figures each and every month, so they can make horrible films like this one. A scandal. Do not watch, even if you like one (or even two) of the actresses. Massive thumbs-down. And no comment on the quote about old people having sex very early on hen they leave after the birthday celebration. Oh how modern and open-minded they are to talk about this despite their age(s). No words for this nonsense. I must stop or I will throw up.
