"Der Mann an ihrer Seite", which means "The Man at her Side", is a German television film from 2008, already over a decade old now and the director of these 90 minutes is Matthias Tiefenbacher. He is probably a perfect example of how quantity does not equal quality. He is a really prolific filmmaker, already was back then, but there are many many projects in his body of work (the vast majority) that probably do not deserve to be seen because the quality is not good gently-speaking. His writer here is Edda Leesch. She was not a prolific writer back then and even today she has far more acting credits than writing. I don't know if that is a good thing, but it would be a better thing if she had zero writing credits judging from the quality of this film here. As for the cast, the character with the most screen time is played by Stefanie Stappenbeck, definitely not a big name, but I guess she was more known back then than she is today. Anyway, she is pretty attractive there is no denying. The fact that she is probably already the most known actress in here makes clear that the male players are more known. This includes her co-lead Oliver Mommsen, Götz Schubert and also Rüdiger Vogler. This trio especially must ask themselves the question why would they appearf in a really really bad film like this. I mean it was so obvious that there would be no creative achievement here whatsoever from minute 1. Vogler has been in other almost equally bad films I have seen, which is especially sad because really he as Wenders' go-to guy back in the day. Still it can be said in favor of the actors that the script was really bad and not even the finest actors from the United States could have made this unbearable screenplay work. On the contrary, sometimes I felt they were even making the material better, so shame we have such a messed-up story from beginning to end and zero attention to detail because with a decent plot, the actors could have turned it into an above-average film for sure.
Now the rest of the review I want to make a few statements why this was such a terrible movie, make references to a handful scenes that really sucked. I will not elaborate on each scene in detail. They really don't deserve that, but instead just name the scenes and very vaguely describe them, so it easy for you to understand. The first example would be basically everything that has to do with her first speech, be it the coffee on her blouse (of course that happens that day, very realistic), that she is simply really nervous and then all of a sudden is like a pro when she tries to be less serious. The mice references are very cringeworthy. So is the story with the other guy who is suddenly interested in her. Also how she struggles with writing the speech. Or maybe it was a later speech, I am not really sure. But yeah, it was such overacting and terrible writing, but of course she gets the job done. You know what I mean when you see the scene. Oh yes, writer Edda Leesch is by the way also acting in here and she shows that it is not always true that the actors were okay here. When she says something about why she told the boss (Vogler) that there is no speaker now was cringeworthy line delivery and felt really unauthentic and acted and not in a good way. Also how she, towards the end, confesses her struggles and sadness to the one character she cannot deal with at all atg the office. How realistic. The accurate reaction would have been that the character had found a new job long before the film began, but nothing about this film is accurate. They also abused (yes the word is accurate) this scene to show us how caring and how much of a teamplayer the protagonist can be in the most shallow manner. What was even tougher to swallow how they shamelessly got in that the ones to blame are of course influential businessmen not showing Leesch's character the support she deserves. Okay, when that one is finally likable we hear our protagonist's friend call her the "office witch" or something like that. Really charming. It's called mobbing by the way and still we are supposed to like this best friend character from beginning to end. I don't know why though. I couldn't care less that she looks like a man post-op, but her lines and line delivery were so horrible that if I actually stopped watching films in the middle, I would have switched my TV off there. Just one example: When she talks about her inexistent love/relationship life, she makes a really really cringeworthy play on words that is to bad to quote here. Let me just say you should be glad you never found out about the exact words. And she has several other lines like this that really manage to make an already horrible film even worse. Like her comment on pregnancy being an illness. Yeah, she has many of these snappy one-liners (or moments like the stapler scene) really that were supposed to be smart and funny, but they are just the exact opposite. The name is Elena Uhlig by the way and she may have been the worst actress from the cast here.
Honestly, I coould keep writing about individual moments when this film sucked probably until I reach the character limit, but I am not going to do that. Still I won't let you off the hook yet and here is a bit more. Just one general example: The title is also not good, really says nothing definite about the film at all and could have been used for a million other romance-related films. So let's focus a bit on the two and their relationship. I can say something positive here, namely that the two actors weren't bad, but their plots were also impossible to turn into quality. The best example is when they split up towards the end. Now that came unexpected and the way they depicted it it felt incredibly weak and pointless. Now I was already happy that, for once, they got in something unexpected in this film, but the exact execution was just so flawed that all my delight vanished immediately. And in the end, it was just another pointless dramatization as we see them so often in (German) films with the only purpose to make the simple-minded think that everything is lost and then at the end there is a happy ending solution and they do get together again right away. Of course, it is also really disrespectful to unemployed people how this film elaborates on this subject. Oh yeah he cannot get a job. Just go become a freelancer and within weeks everybody will send you projects. Again something where this film has nothing to do with reality. And don't even get me started about the pregnancy story towards the end. Now may have been a great idea to have sex without birth control when your relationship is in a state where it is not unlikely for you to break up. Oh wait, of course they are also still happily together 4 years later as we find out during this flashback moment there. I guess these were enough examples now, even if, like I said, i could come up with at least a dozen more and if you decide to watch this film (which you really should not under any circumstance), you will know exactly what I mean. A definite contender for worst film from 2008, not just from Germany, but worldwide and probably also one of the worst from the 2010 as a whole. I highly recommend to keep your distance. Whoever greenlit this should never work in this field of profession again. It's an insul to audiences and it is much worse than the already relatively low rating here on imdb. Not even for German television around noon it is accurate. Best would be if it is never shown again to anybody.
Now the rest of the review I want to make a few statements why this was such a terrible movie, make references to a handful scenes that really sucked. I will not elaborate on each scene in detail. They really don't deserve that, but instead just name the scenes and very vaguely describe them, so it easy for you to understand. The first example would be basically everything that has to do with her first speech, be it the coffee on her blouse (of course that happens that day, very realistic), that she is simply really nervous and then all of a sudden is like a pro when she tries to be less serious. The mice references are very cringeworthy. So is the story with the other guy who is suddenly interested in her. Also how she struggles with writing the speech. Or maybe it was a later speech, I am not really sure. But yeah, it was such overacting and terrible writing, but of course she gets the job done. You know what I mean when you see the scene. Oh yes, writer Edda Leesch is by the way also acting in here and she shows that it is not always true that the actors were okay here. When she says something about why she told the boss (Vogler) that there is no speaker now was cringeworthy line delivery and felt really unauthentic and acted and not in a good way. Also how she, towards the end, confesses her struggles and sadness to the one character she cannot deal with at all atg the office. How realistic. The accurate reaction would have been that the character had found a new job long before the film began, but nothing about this film is accurate. They also abused (yes the word is accurate) this scene to show us how caring and how much of a teamplayer the protagonist can be in the most shallow manner. What was even tougher to swallow how they shamelessly got in that the ones to blame are of course influential businessmen not showing Leesch's character the support she deserves. Okay, when that one is finally likable we hear our protagonist's friend call her the "office witch" or something like that. Really charming. It's called mobbing by the way and still we are supposed to like this best friend character from beginning to end. I don't know why though. I couldn't care less that she looks like a man post-op, but her lines and line delivery were so horrible that if I actually stopped watching films in the middle, I would have switched my TV off there. Just one example: When she talks about her inexistent love/relationship life, she makes a really really cringeworthy play on words that is to bad to quote here. Let me just say you should be glad you never found out about the exact words. And she has several other lines like this that really manage to make an already horrible film even worse. Like her comment on pregnancy being an illness. Yeah, she has many of these snappy one-liners (or moments like the stapler scene) really that were supposed to be smart and funny, but they are just the exact opposite. The name is Elena Uhlig by the way and she may have been the worst actress from the cast here.
Honestly, I coould keep writing about individual moments when this film sucked probably until I reach the character limit, but I am not going to do that. Still I won't let you off the hook yet and here is a bit more. Just one general example: The title is also not good, really says nothing definite about the film at all and could have been used for a million other romance-related films. So let's focus a bit on the two and their relationship. I can say something positive here, namely that the two actors weren't bad, but their plots were also impossible to turn into quality. The best example is when they split up towards the end. Now that came unexpected and the way they depicted it it felt incredibly weak and pointless. Now I was already happy that, for once, they got in something unexpected in this film, but the exact execution was just so flawed that all my delight vanished immediately. And in the end, it was just another pointless dramatization as we see them so often in (German) films with the only purpose to make the simple-minded think that everything is lost and then at the end there is a happy ending solution and they do get together again right away. Of course, it is also really disrespectful to unemployed people how this film elaborates on this subject. Oh yeah he cannot get a job. Just go become a freelancer and within weeks everybody will send you projects. Again something where this film has nothing to do with reality. And don't even get me started about the pregnancy story towards the end. Now may have been a great idea to have sex without birth control when your relationship is in a state where it is not unlikely for you to break up. Oh wait, of course they are also still happily together 4 years later as we find out during this flashback moment there. I guess these were enough examples now, even if, like I said, i could come up with at least a dozen more and if you decide to watch this film (which you really should not under any circumstance), you will know exactly what I mean. A definite contender for worst film from 2008, not just from Germany, but worldwide and probably also one of the worst from the 2010 as a whole. I highly recommend to keep your distance. Whoever greenlit this should never work in this field of profession again. It's an insul to audiences and it is much worse than the already relatively low rating here on imdb. Not even for German television around noon it is accurate. Best would be if it is never shown again to anybody.
