"Die Westentaschenvenus", which is certainly not translated into English the way you see it here on imdb, is a German television film from 2002, so not too long anymore until this one has its 20th anniversary. Maybe it happened already as I am sure not many will read this review the same month that I am posting it. The director is Kirsten Peters and this was her final effort behind the camera, albeit only her second effort. Sadly, she went into writing afterwards where she still is in 2020 and seeing howw she has worked on stuff like Katie Fforde, Inga Lindström and Billy Kuckuck, it is easy to understand where her career has been heading, namely as far south as it gets. All female-centered films we have here, but I applaud every single woman who is not falling for the nonsense that Peters has come up with over the years. Utter absence of talent if you ask me. This film here is based on a novel by Verena C. Harksen, according to imdb her only work that got turned into a movie it seems, probably good this way because I just cannot imagine the original material here is considerably better than the film, hopefully not as worse either. I have not read said novel, so I cennot really talk about parallels and differences between both. There are two writers here, always a bit shocking to me if this is the case honestly because you'd think/hope one they can halp each other in keeping the outcome from becoming a failure, but not so here. It is a massively uninspired travesty in the end. One writer is Daniel Maximilian who was a pretty prolific writer, but has not come up with anything new since 2003, which is probably a good thing becaue I think he just doesn't have it. The other would be Thomas Pauli and it seems these two were a bit of an item and collaborated on many projects in fact for the script, almost all of those projects really poor though quality-wise. So he finished writing also back in 2013, but in contrast to Maximilian has worked as a director since then on high-quality stuff like "Aktenzeichen XY". Enough said I suppose. The cast from this 1.5-hour film we have here is not really any better either. The title character is played by Jeanette Hain, a German actress who has been in many, many films over the years, also in lead roles, but I cannot really say too much good about her. Everybody who sees this film may know why. She may have 2-3 different face expressions max throughout the entire films. Don't get blinded by her admittedly pretty stunning looks, especially to me as somebody who likes brunettes, but there is no range or versatility to her at all as an actress. The love interest to her character is played by Jochen Horst. Maybe you have seen him on "Balko" or anything in the past. In any case, I wwas baffled by how soft his character here was. I kinda remembered him as some kind of more manly actor. Maybe just me. Good he is not either. Rather the opposite. Of course, you could say that the script is so bad at times that not even the most talented actors could have made it work and it would be true, but still nobody forced them to accept roles in this embarrassment of a movie. The rest of the cast there is not much to say. Most of them are unfamiliar even to big German film buffs like myself. One exception would be supporting actress Saskia Vester, who plays a countess here. For real? She is also an actress who has played in many, many films since then and that is why you could know her, but certainly not for her talent or anything. She has none. Interesting to see her as some kind of blonde bombshell character here, that is not wat she usually plays. But she comes as short and when we find out about how she has had loud sex half the night, it is truly more embarrassing than funny. And finally, Daniela Ziegler, another prolific actress. I don't think they are related, but here she is in another Regina Ziegler Filmproduktion and films from this production company are almost always female-centered and almost always massive garbage. This one here is certainly not an exception and I think D. Ziegler has been in some of those.
Alright, you get the point I suppose. Still some references about the content and specific scenes and moments that make it extremely easy for me to say that this film was really really bad. The characters, lead and supporting, are written as one-dimensional as it gets. For example, there is an antagonist and she ends up in bed with Horst's character first and the scene when we see them there in bed together with Horst's character not being impressed at all is just as cringeworthy as the drama later on when the title character finds out about that and is hurt of course, even if the two lovebirds weren't even a couple back then. How she storms out of the building. Or how we see on several occasions what a nice, charming character Hain plays, for example when we have the stealing brat early on and Hain's character acts as if the kid did not steal anything. Nice job. Of course, the girl is changed through all this goodness from the protagonist, while in real life she would keep stealing simply at another occasion. Also the eemingly deep friendship between Hain's chand Vester's character feels so fake how they talk about barely knowing each other and yet it feels as if they have been friends for years. Sigh. It felt so fake and embarrassing. What else? Oh yes, the camera angle between the shelves when the antagonist talks about her sex with Horst's character (and Hain's finds out about it) is a good example of pseudo important direction. Good to see the director never directed any film after this one. Of course, in the end, there is the usual pseudo drama with the main character running away and we were supposed to believe that there will be no happy ending, but of course there is one and the two lovebirds are united again as it is always the case with these Regina Ziegler movies. Well, what can I say, highly unexpected right? The title is also pretty misleading because it sounds with the word "Venus" (not Williams) as if there is some sin in here, some forbidden temptation, but the only thing that should have been forbidden is the making of this movie. Yes it is this bad and honestly I never want to see it again. As bad as the title implies. The best example is the male protagonist's helpless bragging after having found his big love constantly, especially when he is in danger of losing her and when we see how he acts in the morning after having had sex with Hain's character is a bad joke for sure too. The parallel with the other woman I mean. He cannot live without her anymore etc. Today it would maybe be seen as more creepy than back in 2002. They really needed more subtlety here. Or I should say any subtlety at all. Hain is supposed to be seen as perfection and all her flaws only turn her into the strong independent likable woman she is. So, again an anti-male movie from Regina Ziegler. Color me shocked. Fat thumbs-down and I highly recommend to skip the watch here. Go for something else instead. It's an absolute mess. Also, have you understood how women in this film are always so good on their own that they never need partners and yet they always end up with some? Unreal stuff. Makes no sense, nothing about this film does. And no words for the depiction of drugs in here. Oh so very tolerant and progressive! Nope. Shameful indeed.
Alright, you get the point I suppose. Still some references about the content and specific scenes and moments that make it extremely easy for me to say that this film was really really bad. The characters, lead and supporting, are written as one-dimensional as it gets. For example, there is an antagonist and she ends up in bed with Horst's character first and the scene when we see them there in bed together with Horst's character not being impressed at all is just as cringeworthy as the drama later on when the title character finds out about that and is hurt of course, even if the two lovebirds weren't even a couple back then. How she storms out of the building. Or how we see on several occasions what a nice, charming character Hain plays, for example when we have the stealing brat early on and Hain's character acts as if the kid did not steal anything. Nice job. Of course, the girl is changed through all this goodness from the protagonist, while in real life she would keep stealing simply at another occasion. Also the eemingly deep friendship between Hain's chand Vester's character feels so fake how they talk about barely knowing each other and yet it feels as if they have been friends for years. Sigh. It felt so fake and embarrassing. What else? Oh yes, the camera angle between the shelves when the antagonist talks about her sex with Horst's character (and Hain's finds out about it) is a good example of pseudo important direction. Good to see the director never directed any film after this one. Of course, in the end, there is the usual pseudo drama with the main character running away and we were supposed to believe that there will be no happy ending, but of course there is one and the two lovebirds are united again as it is always the case with these Regina Ziegler movies. Well, what can I say, highly unexpected right? The title is also pretty misleading because it sounds with the word "Venus" (not Williams) as if there is some sin in here, some forbidden temptation, but the only thing that should have been forbidden is the making of this movie. Yes it is this bad and honestly I never want to see it again. As bad as the title implies. The best example is the male protagonist's helpless bragging after having found his big love constantly, especially when he is in danger of losing her and when we see how he acts in the morning after having had sex with Hain's character is a bad joke for sure too. The parallel with the other woman I mean. He cannot live without her anymore etc. Today it would maybe be seen as more creepy than back in 2002. They really needed more subtlety here. Or I should say any subtlety at all. Hain is supposed to be seen as perfection and all her flaws only turn her into the strong independent likable woman she is. So, again an anti-male movie from Regina Ziegler. Color me shocked. Fat thumbs-down and I highly recommend to skip the watch here. Go for something else instead. It's an absolute mess. Also, have you understood how women in this film are always so good on their own that they never need partners and yet they always end up with some? Unreal stuff. Makes no sense, nothing about this film does. And no words for the depiction of drugs in here. Oh so very tolerant and progressive! Nope. Shameful indeed.
