Horst in Translation ([email protected])

"Contergan" or "Contergan - Der Prozess" or "Side Effects" is a German German-language film from 2007, so this one has its 10th anniversary this year. It is basically a two-part mini-series that runs for shortly under 3 hours with each episode coming close to the 90-minute mark. Director Winkelmann surely has a long career and that gave me hopes for the film turning out better than he actually did. Probably not even he could turn the unfulfilling script into a quality film. But there are upsides too. It's good that this was made from the perspective that this is a scandal that really should never be forgotten and if it makes people aware today of the horrible events back then, than that alone is worth it. I also quite liked Sadler's lead performance. But these are the only positive things I can mention really. There were moments that felt shocking for the sake of it instead of telling a compelling story. There were many moments that dragged a lot, especially in the second half. I think it would have been best to turn this into a 105-minute film and exclude major parts, for example the ones about Katharina Wackernagel's desperately cringeworthy attempt to convince audiences she can pull of a broken-hearted mother role. She went all ham and came truly short. Then again, in her favor it needs to be said that the role was written truly poorly, but hey she accepted it right. The courtroom meltdown scene was just the tip of the iceberg. Very unbearable to watch. I also don't really understand why they needed to make things personal for the central character here with him being a father of a disabled child. They had that other story line with the single mother with the other disabled child and she could have been easily the female protagonist. I even could have lived with an admittedly potentially cheesy romance plot there if we could have done entirely without Wackernagel's character and performance. She is a Ginnifer Goodwin lookalike and also not any more talented than the American. So yeah, what else is there to say. I can only repeat myself in saying how disappointed I am that such a heartbreaking subject gets such a lukewarm uninspired movie. Not the first time writer Roeskau sucks the meaning out of a film based on real events. Don't watch. I give it a thumbs-down.

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