"Scheidung mit Hindernissen", which means "Divorce with Obstacles", is a German television film from 2001, so this one will have its 20th anniversary next year or, depending on when you read this review, it also could have happened already. The shocking thing is not that this pretty bad film was made. The actually shocking thing is that this film is still shown nowadays on national television. Your GEZ at work, folks. But let us take a look at the basics first: This runs of course for slightly under 1.5 hours like almost all other German small screen releases. Two writers worked on it, so a bit shocking that they did not correct each other's mistakes, but kept going and apparently brought out the worst in each other. One writer has a pretty interesting name, but that is the only interesting thing about him/her really because his/her body of work is really bad. The other's is not better, but at least he is not as prolific, so there is less low quality stuff out there from him. You can check out the names yourself. I will give you the name of the director though: Karola Hattop. Honestly, she started filmmaking in the early 1970s and now, perhaps retired, has had a career of approximately 50 years, but if you take a look at all she has done, you will find basically only projects that are as weak (not to say terrible) as this film we have here. And yes, her career already lasted for 30 years at that point too, early in the new millennium, so there is no hope for her. Zero talent. Not getting better over the years. I have seen more from Hattop and it is just a mess. About the cast, I cannot really say anything positive either, maybe only that Speichert did not disappoint me as much as I thought she would. She is an actress with no talent at all in my opinion. But here, it is not too obvious because the rest of the cast are on her level. As for Speichert, no clue why she still gets cast, even got cast for lead characters then. Maybe it is her looks, she is not unattractive, even if I am biased there because I prefer dark-haired girls, maybe it is her wild hair, but you see that this is just one aspect that shows us how she desperately tries to stand out from the mass of other actors without range and versatility. Because she has neither either. Well, she was kinda of successful it seems. Honestly, what shocked me here maybe the most was how bad Johanna von Koczian was in this film, never convincing, always over the top and honestly even worse than Speichert during the few moments they have together, especially their first meeting and it takes a special absence of talent to be worse than Speichert. Not too much to say about von Au, the male lead. He was weak as well. Ivan Desny deserves a mention. This was not his last project, but his last film as he died briefly after this film. Quite a bummer to go out with a trash project like this. Very disappointing. Gehlen I think I have seen in other stuff too, but that is all I can say. The rest of the cast does not even seem familiar to a big German film buff like myself.
Now I shall mention a few scenes and moments that are very clear evidence that here we have a horrible movie. I will start with a minor moment that was maybe the weakest moment of the film though, namely when the female protagonist (Speichert) and her best friend are talking and they say the exact same phrase at the exact same time. Felt so fake honestly. It was also not really a phrase, their shared statement or so where it could have made slight sense. It was just random and completely nonsense. hat else? Oh yeah, the idea how Speichert's character cannot say yes early on and thus agree to the divorce. Later on she says it was the spur of the moment. It felt so fake and unreal, especially because she said in the car immediately afterwards that she does not love him anymore. Which actually felt real. So the "no" was all for the sake of it. And it is also not a smart frame how the man says no at the end to his wife-to-be in a similar, yet different, scenario. Just very clumsy all along. There is much more. Don't even get me started on the entire wedding sequence at the very end. So fake and for the sake of it really all of it. Embarrassing and highly cringeworthy, also the musicians. Or the scene with the ring. Every scene with von Koczian sucked too with how much she goes all in, yet does not manage to have a single good scene. Sometimes more is less and subtlety is highly required. I am not talking bad about the dead here because she is still alive and really old now. Ah yes, then there is the scene how the two protagonists have to work together because randomly she is hired for a job that involves close collaboration with her former husband. Sigh. Very realistic. Also that the boss does not know the female protagonist's name, but knows the other's name. Where is the other woman by the way. Simply vanishes because she adds nothing to the story? It's so stupid. Like they could have solved the situation immediately. Please don't tell me it would have cost the male protagonist his promotion. Seriously? Please, even in 2001 people were not that backward. The only thing honestly that could have made this an even worse movie is if they had depicted the other woman (Gehlen) as despicable, maybe unfaithful, so we do not feel sorry for her, but yeah, she really gets the full lashing from the male protagonist, so this film is like many other of these ARD (and ARD smaller channels) television movies also anti-male and yet we are supposed to like the guy and cheer for him. I mean the entire idea is nonsense. He is about to marry, which means he should be with someone who is the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with, but not only is he attracted to his previous wife again, but ready to leave his current (almost) wife for the lost love. Or not lost love I assume if I could believe anything from this movie. Finally, a quick mention to the French dude constantly courting Speichert's character. So embarrassing too, also how he is only used to make the male protagonist jealous. Ah yes, men are really simple creatures if you trust these Degeto films, although i am not sure this is Degeto. But it is not better either, so it deserves the label. Overall, a big thumbs-down to this film and I highly recommend to skip the watch here. It is as bad as the title suggests.
Now I shall mention a few scenes and moments that are very clear evidence that here we have a horrible movie. I will start with a minor moment that was maybe the weakest moment of the film though, namely when the female protagonist (Speichert) and her best friend are talking and they say the exact same phrase at the exact same time. Felt so fake honestly. It was also not really a phrase, their shared statement or so where it could have made slight sense. It was just random and completely nonsense. hat else? Oh yeah, the idea how Speichert's character cannot say yes early on and thus agree to the divorce. Later on she says it was the spur of the moment. It felt so fake and unreal, especially because she said in the car immediately afterwards that she does not love him anymore. Which actually felt real. So the "no" was all for the sake of it. And it is also not a smart frame how the man says no at the end to his wife-to-be in a similar, yet different, scenario. Just very clumsy all along. There is much more. Don't even get me started on the entire wedding sequence at the very end. So fake and for the sake of it really all of it. Embarrassing and highly cringeworthy, also the musicians. Or the scene with the ring. Every scene with von Koczian sucked too with how much she goes all in, yet does not manage to have a single good scene. Sometimes more is less and subtlety is highly required. I am not talking bad about the dead here because she is still alive and really old now. Ah yes, then there is the scene how the two protagonists have to work together because randomly she is hired for a job that involves close collaboration with her former husband. Sigh. Very realistic. Also that the boss does not know the female protagonist's name, but knows the other's name. Where is the other woman by the way. Simply vanishes because she adds nothing to the story? It's so stupid. Like they could have solved the situation immediately. Please don't tell me it would have cost the male protagonist his promotion. Seriously? Please, even in 2001 people were not that backward. The only thing honestly that could have made this an even worse movie is if they had depicted the other woman (Gehlen) as despicable, maybe unfaithful, so we do not feel sorry for her, but yeah, she really gets the full lashing from the male protagonist, so this film is like many other of these ARD (and ARD smaller channels) television movies also anti-male and yet we are supposed to like the guy and cheer for him. I mean the entire idea is nonsense. He is about to marry, which means he should be with someone who is the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with, but not only is he attracted to his previous wife again, but ready to leave his current (almost) wife for the lost love. Or not lost love I assume if I could believe anything from this movie. Finally, a quick mention to the French dude constantly courting Speichert's character. So embarrassing too, also how he is only used to make the male protagonist jealous. Ah yes, men are really simple creatures if you trust these Degeto films, although i am not sure this is Degeto. But it is not better either, so it deserves the label. Overall, a big thumbs-down to this film and I highly recommend to skip the watch here. It is as bad as the title suggests.