Utta Danella: Sturm am Ehehimmel (2013)

Teresa Sommer, a woman in her fifties, runs a small guesthouse, Pension Sommer, in the Bavarian foothills of the Alps. She used to be a tour guide; out of love for her husband, she put her own career and personal wishes aside, spending her whole life accommodating her husband and his work. After more than 40 years of service as a weather observer at the German Weather Service’s highest weather station, her husband Paul Sommer is forced into retirement at the age of 65. Teresa now wants to make her lifelong dream come true with her retired husband Paul and travel to Mexico together. Christian Frey, an attractive, overworked Hamburg lawyer, arrives in the village as a holiday guest. He has paid a deposit online to rent a holiday home. However, the holiday home does not exist at all; Christian has fallen victim to an online scammer. Instead, he finds a place to stay at Teresa’s guesthouse. There, he meets Lena, Teresa’s neighbor and best friend. Originally from Tyrol, Lena ended up in Upper Bavaria for love. She has since separated from her husband, who, like Christian, always lived only for his job. She is raising their son Tim on her own and works afternoons in the mayor’s office as a secretary and as “his smartphone.” A first dinner between Lena and Christian ends abruptly when Christian is constantly interrupted by calls on his mobile phone. Paul cannot let go of his work. He keeps trying to stay involved by offering advice and visiting Bernhard, the new weather observer. Bernhard has to make it clear to him, rather bluntly, that he is now retired and no longer in charge. To fill the void, Paul has Tim help him create his own website and sets up a private weather station in Teresa’s garden. Meanwhile, Teresa and Christian grow closer during a ride on the summer toboggan run. Teresa enjoys finally being seen as a woman again. Christian gets hold of an old VW bus and grants Teresa’s wish to just set off for once and enjoy life. A hike in the mountains together, followed by a night in the VW bus beside a lake, leads Teresa to believe that she has fallen in love with Christian. She goes up to the weather station on the Zugspitze to see her husband Paul and confesses that she has fallen in love with Christian, who is much younger. But when she returns, she has to realize that Christian has fallen in love not with her, but with Lena. After Teresa’s confession, Paul even considers separating. Lena and Christian get together and plan a future together despite the distance between Hamburg and Bavaria; Tim admits that he was the one who tricked Christian so he could finally buy himself a new bicycle with the money. After talking things through, Teresa and Paul decide to give their life together a new direction and try again as a couple. They drive off on vacation together to South Tyrol in the old VW bus, which bears the words “Just retired.”