Mama kommt! (2009)

Luise Fischer lives with her sister Hedda. When Hedda gets involved with a younger man, the sisters fall out. Because Luise refuses to apologize for calling her sister a slut, Hedda throws her out. Luise’s 40-year-old daughter, Christiane, is accordingly surprised when her mother suddenly turns up at her door with a suitcase. As a single mother raising a teenage daughter, accident surgeon Christiane already has enough problems. On top of that, she is having an affair with her much younger colleague, resident doctor Lars Rühmann, but would rather keep it secret because of the age difference. Even her daughter Jette knows nothing about it. Reluctantly, Christiane lets her self-pitying mother move in, although Luise assures her she’ll stay for only two weeks and definitely won’t be a burden. Contrary to her promises, Luise turns Christiane’s household upside down. She fires the cleaner, preferring to cook and clean herself, and constantly criticizes her daughter’s way of life. After all, unlike Christiane, she always made time to go over homework with her children. Luise also keeps lecturing Christiane about not having a steady partner. Christiane soon has had enough and tries to make her brother Tommi take responsibility. But Tommi always finds an excuse not to take their mother in. Meanwhile, medical technician and former fellow student Stephan Nöstlinger re-enters Christiane’s life. He has recently divorced and is still interested in her, something Lars notices too. Luise rather likes Stephan and wants to set him up with Christiane. Her granddaughter Jette, who wants to go to America for a year and is afraid her mother will feel too lonely without her, also tries to find Christiane a partner. To that end, she fills out a profile for Christiane on an online dating site. One of the men suggested is the older art dealer Brückner. When Luise and Jette enter his art gallery, Brückner is immediately fascinated by Luise and wants to give her a painting by her favorite artist, Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Lars is also at the gallery and offers to hang the picture in Christiane’s bedroom. When Christiane gets home, she is anything but pleased. Then Stephan arrives, too, and at dinner Luise tells both Lars and Stephan about her daughter’s exes. Christiane promptly throws the two men out of her apartment. Lars increasingly begins to doubt Christiane’s feelings for him. Christiane finally agrees to talk things over at her apartment that evening, so she asks Jette to take Luise out. But Luise also wants the apartment to herself that evening, so she can enjoy a romantic dinner with Brückner without interruption. On her way home, Christiane meets Stephan at the front door, holding a bouquet of flowers. Lars arrives too, and the two men get into a fight. Tommi unexpectedly turns up as well and watches the brawl with amusement. Convinced that Luise is to blame for everything, Christiane storms into her apartment. She has finally had enough and packs Luise’s suitcase. After Brückner has said goodbye, mother and daughter talk things out. Luise has to admit that she has always been too dominant and controlling, even toward Christiane’s late father. But she only ever interfered because it made her feel needed and kept her from feeling alone. Christiane, in turn, admits that she is afraid of intimacy and therefore keeps choosing “men with a built-in relationship brake,” as her colleague Nadja put it. After a heartfelt embrace, Luise decides to email Hedda and apologize. It turns out that Hedda has already split up with her young lover. She forgives her sister and takes her back in. Lars is now flirting with Nadja, which does not bother Christiane: she wants to finally find a man who is really right for her, someone she won’t have to run away from. As she films an introduction video for a matchmaking service and candidly talks to the camera about her relationship hang-ups, Luise goes to Brückner’s gallery to make a fresh start with him.