Verliebt in Amsterdam (2017)

Lawyer Max Baumann has moved from Kassel to Amsterdam. He decided against taking over his parents’ construction business and also wants, at long last, to escape their control. In their opinion, he should have married Jenny, the daughter of the couple who live next door and are his parents’ best friends. Max has known Jenny since they were children and actually once stood with her at the altar, but suddenly called it off. In Amsterdam, the young man has taken a job at a real estate company and found an apartment where he feels at home. Shortly before his 30th birthday, Max’s parents, Herbert and Dorothea, unexpectedly turn up at his door to celebrate his birthday with him. For the time being, they keep to themselves that they intend to lure him back to Kassel. Disturbed by his parents’ loud snoring, Max leaves his apartment late that evening and runs into Sophie de Jong at a nightclub. Sophie runs a sandwich bar. She takes him to a houseboat where she lives with her sister Marijke and Marijke’s partner. They end up in bed together and fall in love. The day after that night, while they are out together, Max gets a call from his father, who excitedly tells him that he has run over a cyclist. At this point, however, Max does not yet know that the man is Johan de Jong, Sophie’s father. On the evening of his birthday, Max introduces Sophie to his parents. They ask many questions, but are at times taken aback by the answers they get. The fact that Sophie’s sister and her lesbian partner have a child with a gay friend, conceived by donor insemination, is still one of Herbert Baumann’s lesser concerns. He offers Sophie money to persuade her to leave his son alone. Sophie confronts Max about his father’s behavior, and Max says, shaking his head, that enough is enough. That night, the two of them spray-paint Herbert Baumann’s golden calf—his Mercedes—in the colors of the Netherlands. All the upheaval leads Max to neglect his job, and he is fired. Completely overwhelmed and confused, Max then considers returning to Germany. He also proposes to Sophie, but she turns him down for fear of being hurt again, as she was in a previous relationship. She tells Max that it would be better for them to break up. Max decides to have a frank discussion with his father, also about the traffic accident involving Johan de Jong. The two men meet and also talk about the 1974 World Cup final between Germany and the Netherlands. A little later, Herbert Baumann apologizes to Sophie for his attempt at blackmail, bringing a large bouquet of her favorite flowers. In the end, Max—who intends to set up his own law practice in Amsterdam—manages to convince Sophie that she can trust him, because, as he puts it, he’d be “an idiot” to let a woman like her go again.