User Reviews

"Ein Ferienhaus auf Teneriffa" is a German television film from 2019, so actually a relative recent release, even if it was shown first in January 2019, so slightly over 1.5 years old. A bit surprising maybe because sunny Spain is not exactly what you would expect to see in winter on German television, but maybe they wanted to get in a bit of warmth here. The director is Sabine Bernardi. Her body of work is not great at all gently-speaking, but she did okay here overall I suppose. Sometimes these ARD movies, even if they take place in beautiful regions, are not even visually interesting, but this one here kinda gets one motivated for going on holidays all in all I'd say, which is one reason why I give this two stars out of five and not just one and why I would not say it is a big failure. Still it is far from good. Don't be mistaken. There are two writers here, bot not extremely experienced, at least compared to the director. Rotter actually appeared more often in front of the camera than working on the screenplay and there is not too much to say about Tepelmann. She still has to prove herself as a writer I'd say, especially quality-wise and this film we have here won't change a thing. Other than that, the usual: The movie runs for 1.5 hours and the cast is nothing special. I still would not blame the actors too much, other than for accepting the contract to star in this film. The characters are written in a way where you could not really make an impact with any of them, even if you are very talented. Which the ones in here are certainly not. The cast includes even less familiar names and faces than those films usually do. I think Rieke seems somewhat familiar, but that's it and even to a big German film buff like myself, that is not a lot at all. Or maybe Hochmair too, but I really cannot associate anything with them.

Now, a few ords about the story. It's not good. That would be a brief summary. I also think it is not as bad as the other reviewer implies. We have a relatively simple couple travel to Ibiza to meet another couple that are close(?) friends with the man. This is the background. However, it surprised me a bit because chemistry was hardly there that you could feel they have been friends for decades. It's just the words that tell us. And while, for the grown-ups, conflicts arise, about marriage, about general happiness with life, about debts, about struggling romantic relationships and a lot more, the two kids have their own struggles. The boy is initially bored, but later on in love with the girl, but she just needed to kiss somebody as part of a challenge and her interests are clearly elsewhere. Here and there more pseudo drama like the trip to the hospital when the boy has a little head wound, but that is it. It did not feel too authentic or real, but also not too much like fake. The good thing is we do not get a pompous wedding as it could have happened too between the two more simple characters here, but the happy ending with the two couples getting along well with each other and the girl apologizing to the boy again was still very much on the unauthentic side and they kinda rushed in all the solutions for audiences to not worry a bit about what is going to happen after the films. Honestly, I have seen other Degeto stuff and other films that include "Ein Ferienhaus in" followed by a location (it is sort of a series you could say) or "Eine Liebe in" followed by a location etc. and these are almost always downright horrible. This one here is not. It is also far from a positive recommendation in fact, but I felt that it could have been way worse too. Still it is despicable how the movie deals with seemingly serious subjects like the nervous anxiety attack from one grown-up character that disappears so quickly or how her man perhaps cheats on her or if it is just in her head etc. becaue people really suffering from such attack deserve a better representation here for sure and from that perspective, it is a pretty shoddy, almost offensive inclusion, and it is good that not too many people saw this film. There was actually a moment I found pretty hilarious. Or a sequence and I am not sure if this was intentional, namely when the wealthy woman is 100% dedicated to take the boy to a hospital to make sure there is no injury. I think it felt more like in a way to teach her daughter about responsability, but I immediately had to think of the poorer couple's debts before that and I kinda felt that maybe the wealthy woman wanted to keep possibly really expensive GBH claims away from herself and her man. It probably was not meant that way though. Unfortunately. So always very telling if the biggest fun factor came without intention and not in a good way telling. Best is if you skip the watch here because nothing stands out and the production values are rather low, almost all of them. Go for a better movie instead.