Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"FC Venus" is a German 95-minute movie from 2006, so it had its 10th anniversary last year. It's probably the most known work by director Ute Wieland, fittingly a female director in accordance with the subject. The writer is Jan Berger, but I must say I am shocked by how bad the screenplay here is. I loved Berger's work on "The Physician", so I really did not expect that. But maybe Berger is not the one to blame as this film is the German-language version of a Finnish movie from one year earlier that deals with the exact same story and subject. I have not seen that one, but it's difficult for me to imagine it being as bad or even worse than this one here. Now about the cast: You will recognize many familiar faces if you are interested in German films. Nora Tschirner and Christian Ulmen are the leads and they recently reunited for the German television series "Tatort". Nopw I would not really blame them for how much of a failure this film turned out as it's at least 90% due to the script. The supporting cast includes the likes of Heinz Hoenig, Florian Lukas and maybe 1 or 2 others you came across once or twice.Finally, the story: This is about a couple who move places and the woman realizes the only reason for it is that the man can play again with his old football buddies. She is pretty furious and the consequence is that she and her man have a bet, namely that she can beat the guy's soccer team with a team that consists of the men's girlfriends and wives. Now lets be serious here: Women biologically already have a disadvantage and that is why no national team of women could beat a 3rd league soccer team consisting of men. But yeah, here the women, all of them untrained with one or two exceptions of course manage the impossible, against a team of men who play on a regular basis. So yeah, this is where the film sacrifices all realism. I like Nora Tschirner, but her penalty scene is also really cringeworthy. Okay, can we see this film as comedy then? No we cannot. If we could, then I'd have given it a 4/10 perhaps. However, the movie takes itself incredibly seriously all the time. And it also tries to be way too much. Feminism. Emancipation. Relationship struggles. Homosexuality. Job problems. And there is also a sub-plot about a very ill character that was supposed to add more emotion even. They tried to make it so much and maybe even as a consequence it turned into so little. Shocking stuff really. The dialogues rang pretty false on so so many occasions. For me it is so difficult to find anything positive about the film. Maybe it is that the final shot was pretty solid, even it has a touch of forced happy ending going with it. So yeah, I recommend highly to stay far far away from this film and this comes from somebody who likes Ulmen(even if only for his comedy), and likes Nora Tschirner even more.
