"Überleben an der Wickelfront" is a German television movie from 2012, so not too long anymore until this one here has its tenth anniversary. It runs for 85 minutes only, so not a long film at all, even shorter than most other German small screen releases. The title means roughly translated "Survival on the diaper front", so knowing this and seeing the photo here on imdb, it is obvious that this is a film about parents of toddlers basically. But first things first: The director is Titus Selge, a relatively prolific television filmmaker who started early in the new millennium. The screenplay is by Stefan Kuhlmann, who launched his career late in the old millennium. Both are still active today and both have bodies of work where I would say they could be worse, but also could better, but they are still superior to the vast majority of television filmmakers from my country here. Which also means that this film we got here may be a definite contender for their weakest careerf effort, which should be obvious looking at my rating here. But I will get to that later on what I did not like about the film and story. This film is based on a book. Dieter Bednarz is the one who wrote it, but it seems he is not related to Klaus Bednarz. In any case, D. Bednarz is far from being only a fiction writer, but he also works as a journalist. In any case, this one we have here is one of only two of his works that got turned into movies. I have not read the book this is based on, so I cannot talk about similarities and differences between the base material and the movie we have here, but I kinda feel the book could be better. However, maybe not if Bednarz agreed with the outcome enough here that he also let them turn the sequel into a movie. Which means, yes, the second book that got turned into a film is indeed the sequel to this one here and the movie came out three years after this one with a similar title and several actors coming back. Which is pretty shameful in my opinion and there is not really any excuse because the outcome here is absolutely not inspired at all. However, the project was prestigious enough to attract several big names. This has more to do with the name Ue Ochsenknecht headlining this project, not too much with the names of the people who worked on this behind the camera. Ochsenknecht is of course one who every German film buff will recognize. I personally don't think his popularity is justified because he does not possess gigantic range or versatility, but he has recognition value, which cannot be denied and admittedly he is also not as horrible of an actor as his sons. The female protagonist is played by Valerie Niehaus, who was probably more famous 15-20 years ago than she is today, but here and there she still manages to land a decent role. Or at least one that gives her a lot of screen time. Here it is debatable if she is a lead or supporting player. Close call, but even if she is not featured as prominently as Ochsenknecht, I'd go with lead. I will just mention a few of the other supporting actors here. You can check out the list for yourself otherwise. Alwara Höfels (also her mother), Kida Khodr Ramadan and maybe the late Krößner, Stokowski, Schipper and Sellem are familiar faces too.
Now, why did I not like this movie? Honestly I must say that I just thought it was mostly bland and uninspired and uninteresting. Until the middle or so, maybe even the one-hour mark I was positive I could give this film two stars out of five and not two stars out of ten because it was ust weak and not terrible or extremely unrealistic. But this changed then with the scene when the male protagonist meets an important politician. They sure played it big by still letting Ochsenkecht's character face the minister of foreign affairs of an influential country all on his own. And what happens there? He brings his baby. No babysitter available? Apparently not. Or just for the sake of the story. I was already appalled they played it this big and did not just say he was meeting a diplomat or ambassador or something. But apparenty, this was too small for this movie. So more make-believe here and if you take this route, then you have to deliver more talent. At least in terms of the screenplay I would say. The actors try their best to make it a better movie, but it's not working too well either. And things go really bad when the centrall character forgets something with the high-profile politician there and the politician takes his limousine and gets it back to him. Of course, all this happens the exact moment the two main characters were talking, so it becomes known to the female that her husband was working earlier and they agreed that he would not. There are more unrealistic moments, unauthentic moments that felt clearly written like the powder scene in Ochsenknecht's character's face or when the baby screams the exact moment when he says it could start right away or other health risks happening and so on. Or of course that Niehaus' character is pregnant again in the end. Oh my. They really wwannted that happy ending I suppose. However, the sequel includes the word "Scheidung", i.e. divorce, so maybe they do not manage to make it work again. But I kinda feel they still get together in the end again. Or they did not manage to get Niehaus to return for more than two or three scenes and they actually do get divorced. I must say I do not care a lot and I still think one film is one too many in this case and there is no excuse for a second film being released. This one here is not ARD, but ZDF by the way, which may explain that it runs for 85 minutes because ARD stuff (Degeto) is usually at 88-89 minutes. Anyway, one who is nonetheless a part of this is Regina Ziegler and she is almost always a guarantee for a film to suck if you find her name in the production company department. This movie we have here is definitely not an exception. It can be summarized pretty easily that it is mostly the story of a man staying at home to take care of the baby twins and the chaos that ensues with it, even if all the people he meets (except his main competitor at work) find the babies super cute. Ochsenknecht is not one of the weakest aspects of the film and same applies to Niehaus, although her moment very early when she tells her husband she is pregnant finally and makes a serious face first is not good at all. But even this one is due to the script/director and not the actress. By the way, this also makes it much more unrealistic that all of a sudden she is pregnant in the end again. Let me guess, it's twins again? Maybe the most disappointing thing to this entire project is really that it is so unfunny. Literally every shot at comedy and humor did almost nothing for me and I am sure most other viewers felt the same. A disappointment all along. Your GEZ money at work, folks. Highly not recommended and no hesitation for me in giving this one a thumbs-down. The only question is how far deep the thumb goes here and after thoughtful consideration I must say: very deep. Keep your distance at any cost and the rating here on imdb is way too high right now. Good news is probably that not too many have seen this film at all.
Now, why did I not like this movie? Honestly I must say that I just thought it was mostly bland and uninspired and uninteresting. Until the middle or so, maybe even the one-hour mark I was positive I could give this film two stars out of five and not two stars out of ten because it was ust weak and not terrible or extremely unrealistic. But this changed then with the scene when the male protagonist meets an important politician. They sure played it big by still letting Ochsenkecht's character face the minister of foreign affairs of an influential country all on his own. And what happens there? He brings his baby. No babysitter available? Apparently not. Or just for the sake of the story. I was already appalled they played it this big and did not just say he was meeting a diplomat or ambassador or something. But apparenty, this was too small for this movie. So more make-believe here and if you take this route, then you have to deliver more talent. At least in terms of the screenplay I would say. The actors try their best to make it a better movie, but it's not working too well either. And things go really bad when the centrall character forgets something with the high-profile politician there and the politician takes his limousine and gets it back to him. Of course, all this happens the exact moment the two main characters were talking, so it becomes known to the female that her husband was working earlier and they agreed that he would not. There are more unrealistic moments, unauthentic moments that felt clearly written like the powder scene in Ochsenknecht's character's face or when the baby screams the exact moment when he says it could start right away or other health risks happening and so on. Or of course that Niehaus' character is pregnant again in the end. Oh my. They really wwannted that happy ending I suppose. However, the sequel includes the word "Scheidung", i.e. divorce, so maybe they do not manage to make it work again. But I kinda feel they still get together in the end again. Or they did not manage to get Niehaus to return for more than two or three scenes and they actually do get divorced. I must say I do not care a lot and I still think one film is one too many in this case and there is no excuse for a second film being released. This one here is not ARD, but ZDF by the way, which may explain that it runs for 85 minutes because ARD stuff (Degeto) is usually at 88-89 minutes. Anyway, one who is nonetheless a part of this is Regina Ziegler and she is almost always a guarantee for a film to suck if you find her name in the production company department. This movie we have here is definitely not an exception. It can be summarized pretty easily that it is mostly the story of a man staying at home to take care of the baby twins and the chaos that ensues with it, even if all the people he meets (except his main competitor at work) find the babies super cute. Ochsenknecht is not one of the weakest aspects of the film and same applies to Niehaus, although her moment very early when she tells her husband she is pregnant finally and makes a serious face first is not good at all. But even this one is due to the script/director and not the actress. By the way, this also makes it much more unrealistic that all of a sudden she is pregnant in the end again. Let me guess, it's twins again? Maybe the most disappointing thing to this entire project is really that it is so unfunny. Literally every shot at comedy and humor did almost nothing for me and I am sure most other viewers felt the same. A disappointment all along. Your GEZ money at work, folks. Highly not recommended and no hesitation for me in giving this one a thumbs-down. The only question is how far deep the thumb goes here and after thoughtful consideration I must say: very deep. Keep your distance at any cost and the rating here on imdb is way too high right now. Good news is probably that not too many have seen this film at all.