Just Married - Hochzeiten zwei (2013)

Claire and Bernhard Ahrensberg return from a trip to Rome and, to Claire’s astonishment, are picked up by Nickl, Bernhard’s former chauffeur. Claire doesn’t believe it was a coincidence, as Bernhard tries to make her think. After all, they had agreed to leave their old lives behind. Bernhard handed over the management of his company, Ahrensberg Aircraft Works, to Ingo, his almost-son-in-law, while Claire sold her gardening business and withdrew from her many environmental activities. Bernhard is slightly annoyed that their high-tech house still isn’t fully furnished, since Claire insists that it must be done according to the principles of Feng Shui. But the couple have another problem: both Bernhard and Claire are secretly pursuing their old activities behind each other’s backs, and desperately trying to hide it from one another. Claire and Bernhard’s daughter Sophie, a passionate engineer, is in much the same situation. Sophie is still on her honeymoon with her husband Hans, a writer, when Ingo calls her with something like a plea for help. They can’t get the figures for a new aircraft model within the required limits; they’re far too high. As a result, an extremely lucrative deal is in danger of falling through. She, too, hides from Hans that she simply can’t stand by and do nothing. While Bernhard rushes to his company but tells Claire he’s at a chess tournament, she meets with State Minister Tannenberger, who is trying to tempt her with a position in the Environment Ministry. This continues for the next few days, with each of them keeping secrets from the other, until Claire has to admit to Bernhard that she has been offered the position of State Secretary in the Environment Ministry. Although Bernhard hasn’t been honest either, he says this betrays the promise they made to start a new life together. And then Erna, Claire’s mother, suddenly disappears. Claire has no way of knowing that Erna is staying with Kalle Berger, whom she last saw 30 years ago. Back then, they were a couple. After Erna turns up with Kalle at Bernhard’s, Bernhard calls Claire to tell her she no longer needs to worry. By chance, Claire then sees Bernhard with Annemarie Rencke, an engineer at Ahrensberg Aircraft Works, and jumps to the wrong conclusion. She leaves Bernhard a note saying she’ll spend the night at her mother’s. Meanwhile, Sophie has solved the problems with the aircraft’s figures. When Claire calls Hans because she can’t reach Sophie and asks him if everything is all right, he replies, “We are who we are, aren’t we?” Claire answers, “You can say that again.” Hans then asks Claire whether she thinks people can change. He loves Sophie, but simply believes that everyone has to remain who they are. You can’t twist yourself into someone else; he’s a scribbler, and Sophie is an aircraft designer. Claire says she understands him perfectly—and how she understands him. And that he has helped her a great deal. Sophie and Hans talk things through and decide to keep loving each other, but separately, because they can’t make it work together. Claire accepts the offer to become State Secretary. Claire and Bernhard meet again in the fully automated elevator in their house. At that very moment, the system announces a malfunction, and the elevator gets stuck. Bernhard explains to Claire that, contrary to what she suspected, he wasn’t cheating on her with Annemarie Rencke; rather, he had never stopped working. Claire can’t argue with that, since she has lied too. They had promised to let the other be just as they are. Just before they are rescued from the broken elevator, they become certain they can make it work together. The whole family reunites at the funeral of Kalle Berger, who was finally able to spend his last days with his great love, Erna, and died very suddenly. Erna has arranged for his yellow sports car to be completely covered in yellow flowers.