"Einmal Toskana und zurück", which means "Once Tuscany and back", is a German television film from 2008, so this one is from over ten years ago, but (sadly) it is still shown on television nowadays. It runs for the usual 1.5 hours and was directed by Imogen Kimmel, a filmmaker active since the early 1980s already, so it is pretty disappointing to see her, in the later years of her career, still stuck with trashy films like this. Admittedly her body of work is not as bad as the one by writer Katrin Ammon, who since started woorking on screenplays early in the new millennium, has not been part of one at least mediocre project apparently. This one here is no exception. So the two names of the writers sound somewhat pretentious, somewhat international, but their talent and vision, especially the writer's are as basic as it gets. Of course, ARd was entirely serious with this one here and acts as if they are depicting a realistic love story between two (or four) elderly people. Well, three elderly people, the man's new relationship is considerably younger of course, in the usual attempt by these films to depict men as shallow and not capable of feeling true connections, but going for the "young meat". Sigh. Also there are these "Eiine Liebe in" ("A love in") or "Ein Sommer in" ("A Summer in") films here in Germany that are usually followed by a location, a holiday location most of the time, and are in 99% of these cases stupid unrealistic romance films. Lots of kitsch. The title here may be slightly different, but this does not make this film any better whatsoever. It is equally horrible. This partially applies to the cast. Sabine Postel is not lead actress material. Never was. Never will be. She fits more in the category of Ferres, Furzwängler, Kroymann and others, even if the latter at least rarely plays lead character, so apparently knows about her limits. All of them have no range or versatility, although I feel that Postel will be honored to be mentioned and listed in the company of such strong female character actors. I applaud everybody who sees through this charade, especially the females that do. The male cast is better here, but not much. Sattmann and ecker may not be on Postel's level, but they are also far from great actors gently-speaking. I must say I felt especially bad for Wecker here because he is not a terrible actor, also a decent musician if I remember correctly, but II could be mixing something up here, but his character is basically restricted to following Postel's like a dog in this movie and then he still does not get her in the end. And he has to go through stuff like her telling him that she wants to be alone now to go to a place he suggested and he accepts it immediately. He has to take her constant blabbering about how she had a special time there with her (ex-)husband and accepts it. Poor guy. Admittedly, I would have expected more from Wecker here too than one or two face expressions throughout the entire film, even if he is not a lead.
Okay, now we are already deep into the story. It is not the key plot that sucks though, even if it sucks the most. Just take the story with the boy and girl who also become love interests. Of course, they hate each other when the boy almost crashes on her with his new car and she is sitting on a bike. They keep having arguments later on about the environment and we are supposed to understand how they challenge each other there I think and of course this tension eventually results in romance. How convenient that the girl is Wecker's character's emmm niece? In any case they are related. Yep, it's a small world for sure. Böhrnsen is pretty attractive though. But the weakest moment in this side story was probably when they are sitting in the car at the end, the small bus, and screaming and singing loudly just like the two older main characters. That is so terrible early on honestly and how they showed us there that they still have a special connection, but clearly they were proud enough of this mess to make a frame reference at the very end to show us how the kids are similar to the grown-ups. Incredibly cringeworthy. Just like everything related to Postel's character. But still she is of course so desirable, such an amazzing woman, that any male would pick her over a far more attractive woman 20 years her junior. Sigh. Unreal stuff. By the way, it is also pretty ridiculous how absoolutely everybody ends up in Italy here as some gigantic coincidence. There again we have the proof that the writer was basically just spitting into the faces of viewers and that this film is the exact opposite of authenticity. Oh wait I mentioned all these other actresses that reminded me of Postel, but there is one I forgot about, who is an even "better" fit: Jutta Speidel of course. Also visually. So yeah, the anti-male side here is also included, but not too strongly because we have to accept the two getting together in the end again. Like when we have the mal character being called a promising young doctor, but now he is just a plastic surgeon etc. Many derogatory aspects included here. At the end, when asked again about the divorce, it also all goes wrong. I know it was meant in a comedic manner how they say they don't want the divorce with the "yes/no", but it was just utterly embarrassing. Just like almost everything else about this film, like there are cringeworthy and unrealistic moments every two minutes or so. No hesitation for me in giving this film a big thumbs-down. My definite suggestion is that you skip the watch here and, like I said earlier, it is pretty shameful that this is still on television nowadays. Your GEZ money at work, folks. Stand up! Oh and by the way, also this film is set in a beautiful region in Italy and they absolutely managed to take out all the charms here. Not even visually, it is a fine watch from any perspective. No matter where you look in this movie (visuals, acting, writing...), it is all a gigantic mess. Stay far, far away. I have no words for the filmmakers calling this movie "enchanting". Have they lost it? Don't fall for this scam.
Okay, now we are already deep into the story. It is not the key plot that sucks though, even if it sucks the most. Just take the story with the boy and girl who also become love interests. Of course, they hate each other when the boy almost crashes on her with his new car and she is sitting on a bike. They keep having arguments later on about the environment and we are supposed to understand how they challenge each other there I think and of course this tension eventually results in romance. How convenient that the girl is Wecker's character's emmm niece? In any case they are related. Yep, it's a small world for sure. Böhrnsen is pretty attractive though. But the weakest moment in this side story was probably when they are sitting in the car at the end, the small bus, and screaming and singing loudly just like the two older main characters. That is so terrible early on honestly and how they showed us there that they still have a special connection, but clearly they were proud enough of this mess to make a frame reference at the very end to show us how the kids are similar to the grown-ups. Incredibly cringeworthy. Just like everything related to Postel's character. But still she is of course so desirable, such an amazzing woman, that any male would pick her over a far more attractive woman 20 years her junior. Sigh. Unreal stuff. By the way, it is also pretty ridiculous how absoolutely everybody ends up in Italy here as some gigantic coincidence. There again we have the proof that the writer was basically just spitting into the faces of viewers and that this film is the exact opposite of authenticity. Oh wait I mentioned all these other actresses that reminded me of Postel, but there is one I forgot about, who is an even "better" fit: Jutta Speidel of course. Also visually. So yeah, the anti-male side here is also included, but not too strongly because we have to accept the two getting together in the end again. Like when we have the mal character being called a promising young doctor, but now he is just a plastic surgeon etc. Many derogatory aspects included here. At the end, when asked again about the divorce, it also all goes wrong. I know it was meant in a comedic manner how they say they don't want the divorce with the "yes/no", but it was just utterly embarrassing. Just like almost everything else about this film, like there are cringeworthy and unrealistic moments every two minutes or so. No hesitation for me in giving this film a big thumbs-down. My definite suggestion is that you skip the watch here and, like I said earlier, it is pretty shameful that this is still on television nowadays. Your GEZ money at work, folks. Stand up! Oh and by the way, also this film is set in a beautiful region in Italy and they absolutely managed to take out all the charms here. Not even visually, it is a fine watch from any perspective. No matter where you look in this movie (visuals, acting, writing...), it is all a gigantic mess. Stay far, far away. I have no words for the filmmakers calling this movie "enchanting". Have they lost it? Don't fall for this scam.
