Ein ganzer Kerl für Mama (2002)

A life-threatening situation is suggested in a highly dramatic opening: A woman tries to climb into an inflatable boat, apparently fighting for her life, while a menacing-looking man pursues her in the water. Once she has managed to get into the boat, she tries to keep him at bay by repeatedly pushing him underwater and striking at the supposed attacker with a paddle. The viewer suspects that this is already the ending of the story, because the film abruptly starts over, this time in a more leisurely manner: Tanja Bergmann plans to spend a seaside holiday with her children, Moritz and Friederike. When they arrive at the airport in Cannes, it becomes clear that Tanja and her children are facing a four-week holiday on the Côte d’Azur during which everything is supposed to be different from usual: from now on, Tanja wants to quit smoking and go on a strict diet at the same time. When they reach the apartment, they discover that there must have been a fire there shortly beforehand: the front door comes off its hinges at the slightest touch, the walls and furnishings are covered in soot, and the windows have been boarded up hastily. The holidaymakers are then offered a vacation home that is much larger and more comfortable than the apartment they originally rented. Shortly afterward, however, it becomes clear that, due to a mix-up, the house has also been rented out for the same period to the writer Paul Wackernagel, who chose it so he could write a book in peace. Since neither Tanja nor Paul has an alternative, they share the house. After some initial friction, Paul becomes friends with Moritz, and eventually with Tanja as well, though at first she had wanted to stop him writing because she does not like that kind of book. At a garden party, Paul and Tanja end up in the swimming pool. They initially get into an argument, but make up by the end. Paul forgives Tanja for disrupting him so much that the book turned into something quite different from what he had originally planned. Right at the end, he confesses that he loves her, and she kisses him passionately. Now the opening of the story becomes clear, too: it was filmed in a gloomy light and accompanied by dramatic music simply to give viewers a completely different impression of what was to follow.