"Und dann kam Wanda", which means basically "Along came Wanda" is a German television film from 2014, so this one is easily over five years old already and if you need a little longer to come here and read this review of mine, then it may be even close to a decade already. It is an ARD production once again and that is why it is not one bit of surprise that the film runs for 1.5 hours or minimally under because they usually do. And Theaterkund GmbH is again involved with this movie, which is almost a safe indicator that the quality is really weak. There is no greater irony to film than this company carrying the German word for art in their title. Anyway, the director here is Holger Haase and well, if you take a look at everything he has worked on in the last almost 20 years, you will know exactly what to expect here quality-wise. And you will still expect too much probably. Yes, this is how poor this movie is. Also I have never really seen a filmmaker who launched his career with "Die lustigsten Schlamassel der Welt". If you are from Germany, you probably came across this program at least indirectly and well.. it kinda fits given the quality of this movie. The writer is Florian Schumacher. He is a little bit younger than the director, but not much, also approaching 50 now. However, he has worked on considerably fewer projects than Haase, but still he was far from a rookie back in 2014. His body of work is nothing to be proud of either with "SOKO" and "Klinik unter Palmen". And a lot more. So yeah, with these two guys in charge here, this was pretty much doomed from the very beginning. Also Hannes Jaenicke is credited here as a writer and he is prolific actor of course, really famous here in Germany with a long career. He turned 60 last year, so was in his mid50s when this was made. Him being part of the writing team happened really not too often and the fact that he came up with the idea for this movie and the very basic plot I assume makes it a good thing that he almost never worte stories.
Jaenicke is also the lead actor in here. Probably not much of a surprise. Well, what can I say about him. He has decent recognition value, is also probably more on the charismatic side, but real range and versatility and two things that he does not really have. He found his niche and the characters that he has played have been extremely similar for decades now. And as he is in almost every scene in this film, this is not a good thing for sure. Nonetheless, I do not hesitate one bit to say that the female co-lead here, Karolina Lodyga, is way worse. I mean "Anna und die Liebe", "SOKO", "Die Eifelpraxis", do I need to say more? I don't think so. Anyway, her being in "4 Blocks" makes me really less interested in this series that actually is on my radar to watch soon. Wilfried Hochholdinger is also easy to identify always. Not sure if he was alright. He was not horrible Kida Khodr Ramadan (also "4 Blocks") was certainly wasted here, like he had one brief scene and not even ten sentences. What a waste. The child actress playing the protagonist's daughter is Bella Bading. When I saw her face, I immediately remembered her sister Emma. It seems both these Bading girls are off to okay careers. At least in terms of quantity and getting into projects. About quality, I am not so sure. Especially not here with this film that is really the exact opposite of quality. Bading also has some pretty bad lines and not really good deliver either. Maybe I will get to those later. At least, she is still young. More successful and prolific actors in here like Topol, but I cannot talk about all of them. Feel free to check out the cast list yourself.
As for the plot and story, there is literally everything wrong with it really. This applies to small moments, but also to the key idea. I mean the protagonist despises Polish people/workers so much and yet we are supposed all this changes throughout the film because he does not only fall for a Polish woman, but in the end, when losing his business pretty much, is employed by somebody where he only works with people from Poland and is super fine with it. Also how earlier already, after firing one guy, he has to collaborate with Poles and it goes well all of it. I did not think it was realistic. But the worst scene from the movie probably comes also early on, namely the first meeting between the two main characters. At the club. The woman is of course harrassed earlier by another guest (the "simple" quote holy moly, I don't even) who is attracted to her, but Jaenicke's character ignores her completely and that means he is a challenge and she wants him right away. So what happens next? Yep, she spills all this wine or something on his clothes to get to know him better, but also, after listening to him secretly, to be employed by him and take care of the home. Of course, she is much better than a maid and a barkeeper. She is an aspiring lawyer. She just needs more time and money to make it work and this is why she accepts lower tasks. What a classy woman. And, as you may have guessed already, her plan comes into effect quickly and she almost employs herself there when Jaenicke's character is still hesitant.
Another scene that involves bars and alcohol is the one with the other suitor. Lodyga's character accepts his invitation to a date and he turns out a complete creep who harrasses her and tries to grab her breasts and everything after that quote with how he can she she is cold and she sees that he sees. man, that was cringeworthy as well. But of course, all out of nowhere, Jaenicke's character is immediately there to protect the woman from the creep. No doubt about it how he beats him up. The strong alpha male is of course the one Lodyga's character really wants and the rejected fella also does something mean that almost destroys everything in the end and forces the woman to leave and return to her mother. By the way, the touchy mean guy I just mentioned is of course German. So is the guy who basically makes Jaenicke's character lose his job towards the end. The good guys cannot be German in this movie and this surely fits in nicely with the mainstream media and footage on this pretty controversial subject of immigration. It's also not just the Poles that our hero bonds with here, but also the Turkish or Arab guy working for him. By the way, what was up with the accident at work when one character is pretty much knocked out. So random and again unrealistic. As for the child actors, the protagonist's kids, they also have many bad moments, especially with how they were written. Matti Schmidt-Schaller also gave a poor acting performance. His pseudo drama about school issues felt like nothing, but uninspired filler material. The brief scene at the kids' mother's grave definitely had a touch of pseudo emotional sob story and how the boy explicitly stated what daddy was doing with the Polish woman was not funny, but just embarrassing. Of course, Jaenicke's character is one so kind and faithful (despite the racism) that he has to confess to his wife he may again be with somebody. Well, it probably helps that the new woman is 25 years young, so almost half his age. As foor Bading's character, she also has pretty weak dialogue writing to her and the line delivery is not helping, especially with one comment in the middle of the movie. And it's not even funny (or creative) anymore how often children end up missing in these films for dramma purposes and they are found quickly and everybody and everything is fine.
But yeah, we are supposed to believe they (Jaenicke's and Lodyga's characters) are about to break up anyway with all that happened, but of course they are together again. The scene when he comes to see her in the end and the way her mother was included there is also very cringeworthy to watch. there is so much wrong with this movie. This also applies to the title. Kinda funny with how they are even promoting Lodyga's character and performance there. She was so bad honestly. The title immediately made me think of the film Kevin Kline won an Oscar for and the first three words can probably also be linked to other projects, not just a Bloodhound Gang song. But it is neother inspired, not creative, nor funny. The movie I mean. This movie we have here. Then again, the title kinda fits the movie, so at least it is not making any false promises quality-wise. I said a lot about the negative aspects here already, but I probably not even mentioned half of everything that is wrong with this movie. I shall leave it at that though because the character limit is getting closer and also I would like to forget about is as soon as I can. May sound harsh, but no excuses here, it was pretty poor. Oh yes, the scene with the girl and the hairdryer in the bathtub. Or the boy who can't take his eyes from Lodyga's character befire daddy slightly punches him. Or when the protagonist's colleagues see her the first time. There are just so many examples for barinstorming about all that went wrong with this movies. I am tempted too use swearwords here, but I can't if I want my review accepted. So, let me make myself once again totally clear that this is a film you must skip 100%. Shamefu that this is probably gonna be on national television for another five or even ten years. Abysmal outcome and this is what our GEZ money is used for. Shame on everybody who was a part of ths project. Massive thumbs-down.
Jaenicke is also the lead actor in here. Probably not much of a surprise. Well, what can I say about him. He has decent recognition value, is also probably more on the charismatic side, but real range and versatility and two things that he does not really have. He found his niche and the characters that he has played have been extremely similar for decades now. And as he is in almost every scene in this film, this is not a good thing for sure. Nonetheless, I do not hesitate one bit to say that the female co-lead here, Karolina Lodyga, is way worse. I mean "Anna und die Liebe", "SOKO", "Die Eifelpraxis", do I need to say more? I don't think so. Anyway, her being in "4 Blocks" makes me really less interested in this series that actually is on my radar to watch soon. Wilfried Hochholdinger is also easy to identify always. Not sure if he was alright. He was not horrible Kida Khodr Ramadan (also "4 Blocks") was certainly wasted here, like he had one brief scene and not even ten sentences. What a waste. The child actress playing the protagonist's daughter is Bella Bading. When I saw her face, I immediately remembered her sister Emma. It seems both these Bading girls are off to okay careers. At least in terms of quantity and getting into projects. About quality, I am not so sure. Especially not here with this film that is really the exact opposite of quality. Bading also has some pretty bad lines and not really good deliver either. Maybe I will get to those later. At least, she is still young. More successful and prolific actors in here like Topol, but I cannot talk about all of them. Feel free to check out the cast list yourself.
As for the plot and story, there is literally everything wrong with it really. This applies to small moments, but also to the key idea. I mean the protagonist despises Polish people/workers so much and yet we are supposed all this changes throughout the film because he does not only fall for a Polish woman, but in the end, when losing his business pretty much, is employed by somebody where he only works with people from Poland and is super fine with it. Also how earlier already, after firing one guy, he has to collaborate with Poles and it goes well all of it. I did not think it was realistic. But the worst scene from the movie probably comes also early on, namely the first meeting between the two main characters. At the club. The woman is of course harrassed earlier by another guest (the "simple" quote holy moly, I don't even) who is attracted to her, but Jaenicke's character ignores her completely and that means he is a challenge and she wants him right away. So what happens next? Yep, she spills all this wine or something on his clothes to get to know him better, but also, after listening to him secretly, to be employed by him and take care of the home. Of course, she is much better than a maid and a barkeeper. She is an aspiring lawyer. She just needs more time and money to make it work and this is why she accepts lower tasks. What a classy woman. And, as you may have guessed already, her plan comes into effect quickly and she almost employs herself there when Jaenicke's character is still hesitant.
Another scene that involves bars and alcohol is the one with the other suitor. Lodyga's character accepts his invitation to a date and he turns out a complete creep who harrasses her and tries to grab her breasts and everything after that quote with how he can she she is cold and she sees that he sees. man, that was cringeworthy as well. But of course, all out of nowhere, Jaenicke's character is immediately there to protect the woman from the creep. No doubt about it how he beats him up. The strong alpha male is of course the one Lodyga's character really wants and the rejected fella also does something mean that almost destroys everything in the end and forces the woman to leave and return to her mother. By the way, the touchy mean guy I just mentioned is of course German. So is the guy who basically makes Jaenicke's character lose his job towards the end. The good guys cannot be German in this movie and this surely fits in nicely with the mainstream media and footage on this pretty controversial subject of immigration. It's also not just the Poles that our hero bonds with here, but also the Turkish or Arab guy working for him. By the way, what was up with the accident at work when one character is pretty much knocked out. So random and again unrealistic. As for the child actors, the protagonist's kids, they also have many bad moments, especially with how they were written. Matti Schmidt-Schaller also gave a poor acting performance. His pseudo drama about school issues felt like nothing, but uninspired filler material. The brief scene at the kids' mother's grave definitely had a touch of pseudo emotional sob story and how the boy explicitly stated what daddy was doing with the Polish woman was not funny, but just embarrassing. Of course, Jaenicke's character is one so kind and faithful (despite the racism) that he has to confess to his wife he may again be with somebody. Well, it probably helps that the new woman is 25 years young, so almost half his age. As foor Bading's character, she also has pretty weak dialogue writing to her and the line delivery is not helping, especially with one comment in the middle of the movie. And it's not even funny (or creative) anymore how often children end up missing in these films for dramma purposes and they are found quickly and everybody and everything is fine.
But yeah, we are supposed to believe they (Jaenicke's and Lodyga's characters) are about to break up anyway with all that happened, but of course they are together again. The scene when he comes to see her in the end and the way her mother was included there is also very cringeworthy to watch. there is so much wrong with this movie. This also applies to the title. Kinda funny with how they are even promoting Lodyga's character and performance there. She was so bad honestly. The title immediately made me think of the film Kevin Kline won an Oscar for and the first three words can probably also be linked to other projects, not just a Bloodhound Gang song. But it is neother inspired, not creative, nor funny. The movie I mean. This movie we have here. Then again, the title kinda fits the movie, so at least it is not making any false promises quality-wise. I said a lot about the negative aspects here already, but I probably not even mentioned half of everything that is wrong with this movie. I shall leave it at that though because the character limit is getting closer and also I would like to forget about is as soon as I can. May sound harsh, but no excuses here, it was pretty poor. Oh yes, the scene with the girl and the hairdryer in the bathtub. Or the boy who can't take his eyes from Lodyga's character befire daddy slightly punches him. Or when the protagonist's colleagues see her the first time. There are just so many examples for barinstorming about all that went wrong with this movies. I am tempted too use swearwords here, but I can't if I want my review accepted. So, let me make myself once again totally clear that this is a film you must skip 100%. Shamefu that this is probably gonna be on national television for another five or even ten years. Abysmal outcome and this is what our GEZ money is used for. Shame on everybody who was a part of ths project. Massive thumbs-down.
