Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Ich will dich" (pretty baity and equally abd title to be honest) or "I Want You" is a German television movie from 2014, so this one has its 3rd anniversary this year. It was directed by Rainer Kaufmann and written by Kathrin Richter (has worked with Kaufmann several times before) and Jürgen Schlagenhof, also an experienced writer. Like most German television films, it runs for 1.5 hours exactly pretty much. This is the story of a married woman with children who discovers that she is actually a lesbian, or at least bisexual, when she meets the fiancée of her husband's buddy. So you see it is actually the story of two women and the problem here is they were/are both in heterosexual relationships, married or about to marry, so they really have to deliver in terms of story-telling to make up for this not exactly realistic plot idea. Two women falling in love despite actually going for men previously? That's right. It sounds a bit like the story of the Oscar-nominated "Carol". Admittedly, you have to say in this film's favor here that it was released before "Carol" and not just made because of the big success of the American movie. Anyway, lead actress Ina Weisse sure looks pretty similar physically and in terms of acting to Blanchett.Now about the story here, there were occasionally okay moments, but overall I just wasn't convinced. The film dragged quite a bit and I felt on several occasions that there were scenes that added almost nothing to the film. The movies was probably at its best right after the two women spoke to their men and Noethen (probably the most known cast member) really shines there and is probably also the MVP of the film. But it gets worse very quickly afterward again when the film turns to generic drama with the apparent split-up, right after they told their husbands and the character of Marozsán randomly decides that it's still not what she wants. This was drama for the sake of it and same can be said about the forced happy ending. They just included one significant plot twist scene after the other and completely forgot to elaborate on it convincingly. Admittedly the movie sucked quite a bit before that already, especially in the first hour. The character presentations are not bad, but the action just isn't enough for anything over one hour and then they rush it all in towards the end. The negative certainly outweighs the positive here and I give this film a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
