Movie Critic I went into this movie completely open minded in the mood for a comedy. If you find unbelievable things like a fat woman needing a rope to get out of bed funny this movie may be for you. Although I suppose that could have been for her MS too not at all clear /neither is funny. Also early on it became obvious that they were using doubles for the nude scenes and ridiculous stuffing under the main actress's dress for the face scenes (seeing an implausible lumpy looking fat person in every other frame was supposed to be hilarious?)Anyway about half way through I realized it was a complete dud about the time the multicultural feel good stuff started to spin. The old man at the nursing home masturbating didn't help things along either---how riotously humorous eh?This thing is as boring and colorless as the winter sky in Northern Europe--at least as depicted in this movie. Germany is one my favorite countries this movie makes Berlin look like some sort of future dystopia.The scenery was so drab and dreary I can't even give it my usual extra star for a foreign venue.Even if you look at this thing as a character study movie rather than a comedy what character do we have? A woman who thinks a positive attitude changes every bad thing that can happen? It flops. Dull and boring like the character's life. The staged fake feel good PC multicultural stuff is like adding a root canal to this thing.Achtung! Avoid!!!!

bernd-64 I am very astonished, when I read in a review that this movie is completely unfunny. As a German I consider this film to be quite funny and at the same time also reflective. It is a plot about people who are not on the sunny side of life. It is shown how they try to survive. The message is that this is easier with a positive spirit. And even when your acting is not completely legal you still remain a good hearted person. Some exaggerations are used to make this movie also funny. Obviously you need German humor to like this film. It is clear that it is difficult to translate the mood of this film into another language. There are many details which a viewer who is not familiar with German mentality and history may not understand.

mail-25 Hairdresser Kathi is fat but good-spirited. This is the plot. There is nothing else going on. Instead this movie tries to tell you very hard and very unconvincing that you're a winner if you're in a good mood and you smile everything away. Really. There's nothing going on there. Except a subplot about illegal vietnamese immigrants. Kathi helps them, they leave, nothing really happens between them, end of subplot. Oh yeah, and a subplot about her daughter who hates her mother. Suddenly, without apparent motive, she loves her. Then the little one leaves her mom behind for America - beside the fact that Kathi becomes seriously ill. At the end, Kathi is TOTALLY alone. Kathi doesn't seem to care, she stays optimistic. We don't know why. We do not care, either. Nothing works in this movie. Nothing - not even Kathi's business plan for her own hairdresser salon - makes ANY sense at all. And before you ask: All this is god-awful UNFUNNY!

Pippi_langstrumpf Kathi is an unemployed hairdresser in Berlin. She is divorced and tries to scratch a living for herself and her daughter.In a hypermarket she applies for a job as a hairdresser but she is told that they need someone "aesthetic", that is, no-one with a fat bottom or a flabby belly. This sets a whole series of events in motion when she tries to open her own shop, because that requires a business plan, venture capital etc.This, of course, is not easy to obtain; however, setbacks do not prevent Kathi from trying and trying again. Attempting to make some money, she gets involved in smuggling Vietnamese people from Poland into Germany and has to host them in her little flat. And things go from bad to worse.Nevertheless, she always fights her way back with optimism and charm. Even though this film shows life as difficult as it can be, the optimism this story exudes is contagious.Definitely a feel-good movie for a rainy evening and a kick in the butt for anyone on the dole who does not even try to find work anymore.