Instant Favorite.

Better than most people think

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This may be a good film. I have not the faintest idea in terms of how it develops beyond the first half hour, as that is all I could take before I feared that terminal boredom would get me for sure and I put on my recording of "Destry rides again" (James Stewart/Marlene Dietrich) to bring me back to life! I have heard that watching paint dry can be tiresome, but I found this, with its interminable panning shots and mumbled dialogue, the equivalent of listening to someone watching paint dry! No thanks/life's too short (as I presume was "the message" of this rambling cinematic outing????)Why DO so many German films have to be such stodgy, indigestible, s - l - o - w affairs? "Run, Lola, run" proves beyond the slightest doubt that they do not have to be!

An old lady falls in love with an old man, not her husband. She and the old man have wonderful sex, and she finds herself compelled to continue against her wishes "I didn't want this" she will say again and again. It is a bit alarming, this portrayal of a mature woman in a good relationship, with a daughter, grandchildren, a good an settled life when she finds herself acting methodically but out of control... she is filled with desire for this new man's company, and out of a sense of honesty she is compelled to tell her husband and indeed, leave him. "I didn't want this" she will say... This is not a young thing, inexperienced, taken away by some mad youthful forbidden fling, This is an adult, a mature and capable woman who is nonetheless taken up as if she were just that young thing, bereft of responsibility, consumed and driven to pursue that new love, wonderfully fresh. How can this not destroy her family? "I didn't want this." It is a little bit frightening, that for all she has, her emotions can pull her away and out of her family, surely able to know the damage that must be done but unable to experience that created pain against the overwhelming passion she has incautiously stumbled into. A lovely, revealing, cautionary tale. The audience itself seems similarly drawn in, enjoying the romance but unwilling to accept what would clearly be an expected outcome: pain.

The pitch of this movie isn't my usual cup of tea a love affair between elders. Also festival movies have a tendency to drag and bore. Finally love scenes between old couple naked. All these aspect should turn me down to sit through it.In the end the movie was so well acted that the long cliché scene of Indy cinema where good and most importantly kept you awake.The story was complex because the women cheats on her husband after 30 years of marriage.Finally the love scenes between old people. Yes you see them naked but the director doesn't make vulgar or gross. So it doesn't really bother the eye Very interesting movie.

Films about how elderly people conceive love and romance are usually ones with potential. This one, however, isn't. The main problem with this film is the poor character development, making all characters extremely unsympathetic and impossible to sense empathy for as a viewer. Especially Werner, the stereotypical old grump in this show, is extremely selfish and only makes the viewer feel hatred towards him, instead of sympathy. In a final act of selfishness, he takes his own life, taking his unsympatheticness to a whole new level. One of the worst films to come out of Germany recently: you can get a lot more value for your buck at your local movie theater than this.