Der Liebling des Himmels (2015)

Magnus Sorel is a well-paid psychotherapist who is himself extremely compulsive and lacks empathy for his patients and the people around him. During therapy sessions, he sometimes pays more attention to his tablet than to his patients. Then his diaries are stolen from his apartment. He meticulously writes everything in them. On top of that, his patient Masha reports him for sexual assault. He did in fact have a sexual relationship with her, so she could have evidence to support her claim. But that is not all: he learns that his wife Angela, whom he separated from ten years ago, has terminal pancreatic cancer. He has hardly any relationship with their son, Leopold. They decide that Angela will be cared for in Magnus’s apartment for the time she has left. Over the following period, this leads to constructive conversations between Magnus and her again. Magnus’s father, a highly respected psychotherapist and professor, advises him to speak with his patient about the assault complaint. When Magnus does, he runs into her violent ex-husband, who humiliates him. Masha tells Magnus she will withdraw the complaint if he spends the next weekend with her as a couple. He receives a phone call demanding money for his beloved diaries. If he does not pay, they will be passed on to the press. Through his friend Billy, Magnus hires two thugs to teach the diary thief a lesson. Magnus eventually pays and gets his diaries back. However, it turns out that his son and his son’s friend were behind the theft: his son wanted to teach him a lesson so that the always self-controlled and exceedingly proper psychiatrist would finally show some emotion. Magnus meets them both at the hospital, where they have been beaten up by the thugs. A little later, Magnus runs into the thugs too, and is so badly beaten that he has to attend the ethics committee meeting where his case is being discussed in a sorry state. There, he opens up to his father, telling him that his father never wanted to see his disorders—which may well run in the family. Angela’s test results are unexpectedly good; her blood work is sensational. Magnus decides after all to go to the hotel to meet Masha. They talk things through, and he admits his feelings for her, as well as the problems he has always had because of his own patterns of dysfunction. She suggests they could try again; her husband no longer has any objection. He is lying dead in the next room, in the bedroom, after a heart attack. She admits that perhaps she gave him the wrong medication and that the police may suspect her. Magnus only says, “I think people talk too much,” and kisses her.