Keine Ehe ohne Pause (2016)

Susanne and Max Mangold have been married for nearly 25 years. They have an adult daughter who is studying medicine and is expecting a child soon. Susanne is a law professor and has just been awarded the Leibniz Prize. She receives a visiting professorship in Rostock, near her old home. Max is a successful writer who has spent more than two decades writing historical romance novels under the pseudonym “Jana van Hausten”; a clause in his contract forbids him from revealing his identity. He is not at all happy about Susanne moving from Berlin to the north, partly because Susanne’s old teenage love, Jörn, lives there. Max lets himself go and turns up drunk at one of Susanne’s lectures, where his remarks make him obnoxious. Susanne then decides that the two of them should take a break from their marriage—ideally for a year. A writer’s block has left Max unproductive, and the new situation is clearly taking its toll on him. Max is a hypochondriac and struggles with high blood pressure. He also realizes that his professional life is one big lie and that he has to hide from his readers. Susanne heads toward Rostock, but because of water damage, she cannot move into the house she rented and has to stay at her mother’s guesthouse for the time being. Max, who is not so keen on the idea of a break, follows her and starts camping outside the house, trying to do something about the situation, which impresses his mother-in-law a little. She later lets him stay at the guesthouse. Max meets Nancy, a hairdresser who has read all his novels and raves about them. He eventually reveals to her who really wrote them. At first she feels a little cheated, but she understands why he confessed. She also gives him a box of wigs and dresses so that Max can write as “Jana van Hausten.” Suddenly, he is able to get words down on the page again. One evening, a fight breaks out between the jealous Max and Jörn. Max writes Susanne a letter in which he reflects on various things and says that he needs to find himself. Max’s publisher is not especially pleased with the changes Max has made to his new novel, but Max puts pressure on him and insists on finally doing a reading. Wearing a woman’s dress and a wig, he reads from his work and, at the end, reveals his identity. In all the excitement, Paula’s waters break, and Max and Susanne take her to the maternity clinic, where their grandchild is born. Susanne is proud of Max for daring to go public. Offers from talk shows now keep coming in, and Max’s publisher is delighted with how things are developing. Max and Susanne begin to overcome their crisis. When Paula asks what is happening with the break in their marriage, Susanne jokingly replies, “Tomorrow, 303 days left.”