Vorsicht vor Leuten (2015)

Lorenz Brahmkamp, a low-level employee in the building department of the city of Osthofen, talks his way through life with little lies and half-truths. His wife, Katrin, no longer wants to put up with it and promptly moves in with an acquaintance she also goes dancing with. At work, his boss is already close to firing the rather work-shy Lorenz. So something finally has to change. One evening, in order to win Katrin back, he sets himself three goals: keep his job, lose weight, and become honest. The next day, he offers his boss to take charge of the region’s biggest construction project, the Megapark. It is to be built on the site of the old gravel pit, whose closure Lorenz had already been involved in back then. Lorenz drives to the villa of Alexander Schönleben, who is acting as the developer and courting local investors. The two men take a liking to each other, so Schönleben invites Lorenz to an investor meeting at the city’s finest restaurant. Lorenz realizes that Schönleben does not always tell the truth. In reality, he is a con man trying to swindle people out of their money. At a promotional event at the gravel pit, Lorenz is hit on the head by a golf ball and, dazed, blurts out a few free-associative remarks and insults Schönleben. Schönleben thinks Lorenz has seen through him. The next day, when Lorenz goes to apologize to Schönleben for what happened, he catches him lying to an investor. Schönleben suggests that he will show his gratitude if Lorenz helps him. When the investor pulls out and wants her money back, Schönleben needs cash. He plans to get it in Mallorca, and Lorenz is supposed to help him; he can bring his wife, too. Lorenz flies to the holiday island with Katrin, and they stay with Schönleben and his partner, Teresa. To get money, Schönleben puts “For Sale” signs on houses and tries to sell them to wealthy people who prefer to pay in cash to keep the money from the tax authorities. Lorenz usually plays the part of another interested buyer to push the others into making a decision. They are quite successful, and Lorenz can finally offer Katrin something again. When they try to sell a house to an elderly German retired couple, Lorenz has scruples. They postpone the decision and decide instead to race each other in a swimming contest. If Lorenz wins, they will not sell the house. He really does win, but now Lorenz learns that Schönleben does not own the houses at all. During a scuffle in the water, Schönleben hits his head against a rock. Lorenz rescues the injured man and takes him to the hospital. While Schönleben recovers, Lorenz finds out a good deal about him and discovers that Schönleben has repeatedly swindled investors with shady projects. When the retired couple gets in touch to say they do want to buy after all, Lorenz meets with them again. He is still somewhat torn. After seeing the sign “Watch out for people!” in the cloakroom, he decides to take the couple’s money. Schönleben returns from the hospital, and they decide to finish the operation in Osthofen. Back in Germany, the two continue their scheme. They actually manage to convince the investors. Lorenz has entirely new plans: he wants Schönleben to have a stake in the project, rather than the other way around, and the two quarrel. That evening, Katrin comes to Lorenz. She has canceled her dancing and wants to go out. Lorenz has leased an expensive car so he can keep impressing Katrin. As they leave the apartment, a journalist’s voice comes on the answering machine, saying that something Lorenz said in an interview with the newspaper is not true. He asks Lorenz to call him back.