Und ewig schweigen die Männer (2008)

Financial adviser Theo Bretterer travels a lot for work, while his wife, Dani, takes care of the household and tries to keep him happy in every way. When he returns from a business trip on his 51st birthday, he falls into a crisis. He feels he needs to change something in his life, and the first thing he does is visit a gym. His family is already waiting for him at home to celebrate his birthday. But the only topic of conversation is age and getting older, which plunges Theo further into his crisis. The fact that he is due to become a grandfather in a few months only makes matters worse. The next day, he cancels all his work appointments, but instead of looking after his wife, who has been feeling very neglected lately, he wanders around town and ends up “stuck” in a bar. There he meets Sandra, a young, attractive woman. Sandra has been looking for a wealthy lover for some time, so she seizes her opportunity. At first, she takes the very drunk Theo home with her, but then puts him in a taxi that takes him home. His wife does not exactly greet him warmly; instead, she gives him a dressing-down. At work, too, it seems they barely need him as the boss anymore, since everything is running smoothly. So he continues the city wanderings he began the day before and buys himself a motorcycle, along with proper riding gear. His wife is expecting him for dinner that evening and tries to have a heart-to-heart, but Theo tells her that he does not want to talk and is going to move out. Dani drowns her sorrows in alcohol and calls her daughter, who promises to take care of her. An old friend from her youth would also like to comfort her, but Dani turns him down. When her mother finds out what is happening in her daughter’s marriage, she simply says, “He’ll come back.” Meanwhile, Theo enjoys his new freedom and invites Sandra for a ride on his motorcycle. They spend that night and the next few days in a luxury hotel, which Sandra thoroughly enjoys and which makes Theo feel temporarily years younger. He retrieves more of his things from home, and Dani fears that she has lost her husband to a younger woman. Theo’s parents get the same impression when he introduces them to his young girlfriend. His mother, however, wants nothing to do with the “little floozy,” and his father also seems unimpressed, which he quickly makes clear to Sandra. She realizes Theo is not serious about her, and after these few days he, too, has had enough of her. They split up, and Theo has no idea how he wants to shape the rest of his life. He does approach his wife and suggest that they should talk, but Dani refuses.