Der Kotzbrocken (2015)

Sophie Brand, an overwhelmed single mother since her husband’s death in an accident, struggles to make ends meet with two jobs. During the day she works at a supermarket, and in the evening she waits tables at an upscale restaurant. Her seven-year-old son Linus feels neglected, while her teenage daughter Laura is overburdened with babysitting Linus and rebels. Because Sophie never opens her mail, she has to answer in court for numerous unpaid fines and is sentenced to 300 hours of community service. Before that, she had wrongfully taken the disabled parking space belonging to the judge, who has difficulty walking. After the hearing, the judge gives her the address of a facility where an energetic woman like her is needed—but for now, he tells her no more than that. At the facility, Frau Marold asks Sophie to make contact with Georg, who became paraplegic after a car accident he caused himself. But after just a few minutes, his aggressive, off-putting manner drives Sophie from the room. Frau Marold tells her that no one has managed to last in there for long. Georg is the judge’s brother. Before his accident he was a triathlete, but now he has lost all zest for life and will not let anyone get close to him—not even his girlfriend Barbara, who believes she was partly to blame for the accident. The judge apparently hopes that Sophie, with her energetic and direct manner, can bring Georg “back to life.” But at first Georg treats Sophie as nothing but the obnoxious jerk the title refers to. Several times she announces that she will never come back, but Martin, another resident who likes Georg and whom Sophie takes to immediately, encourages her to keep trying. In her personal life, Jacques, her boss at the restaurant, has his eye on her, and a relationship slowly begins to develop. When Georg maliciously accuses Sophie of stealing his money, she yells at him, telling him exactly how angry she is and how impossible he is, then leaves the room. Surprisingly, this impresses Georg deeply: she treats him as a person rather than showing him the pity most people do. When Georg explicitly asks her to come back, she makes it a condition that he apologize to her in person. To her surprise, he does—and, for the first time in years, leaves his room. He also meets Linus, who takes to Georg immediately and challenges him to a race: scooter against wheelchair. The next day they have the race, which Georg wins, although he falls into the lake along the way. The others jump in after him, and they all have fun; the ice seems to have been broken. A setback comes when Martin, who is seriously ill, is transferred to a hospice and dies shortly afterward. To keep the grieving Georg from being alone, Sophie spontaneously takes him along on a weekend trip with Jacques, which turns into an adventure. Georg becomes friends with both children and also gets along well with Jacques. Sophie encourages Georg to take part in the Hamburg Marathon and helps him train. Eventually, Georg opens up completely and tells Barbara that he caused the serious accident himself because he had taken steroids beforehand for a competition, which impaired his perception. He asks her to forgive him, and they part on good terms. By now Georg is completely in love with Sophie, and the two spend the night together. When Jacques finds out, he makes Sophie choose; she chooses Jacques, leaving the hurt Georg to continue preparing for the marathon alone. When Sophie and the children move in with Jacques and have to take a long detour because the marathon is taking place at the same time, they argue when Sophie wants to follow the coverage on the radio. Jacques accuses her of being unable to let Georg go. She leaves him behind and waits for Georg at the finish line, where he has had to give up just short of the end. Sophie hugs him and tells him that, in exchange, he has won her.