Partly Sunny (2012)

"Heiter bis wolkig" is a 2012 drama with comedy aspects written and directed by Marco Petry. If you are familiar with German cinema, maybe you have seen his previous film "Schule".The film's central characters are played by Max Riemelt, Anna Fischer, Jessica Schwarz and Elyas M'Barek. For Riemelt and Fischer, it's a reunion from "Wir sind die Nacht". First of all, let me say that I am not too big on Riemelt and especially M'Barek as actors. Rarely they show performances where I say they have the talent to carry a film. However, Riemelt does at least manage a solid performance here.The film starts pretty weak with humor on despicable ways to have sex with stranger girls and also comedy that deals with vouchers for penis enlargement operations, comments like "Pimmelzwerg" and faking pregnancies to get a taxi. Thankfully, the film gets better pretty quickly, maybe because M'Barek is out of the picture for most of the movie afterward. I personally felt that the dark-haired girl that M'Barek's character meets early on would play a bigger role, but I was wrong. She only appears during one scene later on in quite a coincidence. I also thought Schwarz' character could be a love interest to Riemelt's character, but I was wrong too. Nonetheless, Jessica Schwarz is the heart and soul of this movie. It's nice to see how somebody whose career started as a host on a small music TV channel has become one of Germany's most talented actresses. Her character here, a woman with terminal cancer is probably the most interesting German character of the year and her breakdown in the car may be the most emotional scene of the year from a German movie.I just wish the films writing would have been on par with her performance. Occasionally, it gets ridiculous again and there are quite a few weak scenes that could have been left out, like the running from the restaurant without paying part. This way the movie would maybe just lasted for 80-90 instead of 100 minutes, but overall it could have helped with the outcome. Also I found strange that Riemelt's character somehow only was at the place of the two girls for the rest of the film, but it's fine I guess. This way we saw less M'Barek scenes. The struggles between the two sisters (due to jealousy I guess) did not really work for me either. They always seemed so close and as if they would talk about everything, so their sudden arguments and splitting did not seem credible.What I did like was that the lie from Riemelt's character did not stay a lie the way Schwarz' character tried it when she spoke about his sudden cure. That would have been an unsatisfying ending in my opinion. I also liked the flickering lights reference and how it did not happen as it may have in a cheesy comedy. So there is no life after death? Anyway, all in all I liked this movie. It's far from perfect, but has some charm to it and a brilliant effort from Jessica Schwarz, who alone makes it worth watching. It's a bit predictable, but it also has some nice music including "Iris" from Goo Goo Dolls. Also I believe, if you are not too familiar with German cinema this could be a good choice to see as one of the first films to get into it. Recommended.

This film starts as a shallow love story: two blokes in a bar hit on the woman they fancy by sending one of them over who tells her that the other one is terminally ill. "Would you like a brain tumour or prostate cancer? - OK, OK, I know, so it's a brain tumour." Surprisingly women seem to believe this shtick and want to help the alleged coffin-dodger to a beautiful last night.Using this trick, Tim, a canteen cook, gets to know Marie - and this time it isn't a one-night stand, but develops into something more serious. The snag is that Marie has a sister, Edda, who really suffers from cancer and only has a few months to live. She, of course, can see through the subterfuge right from the start and asks Tim to help her grant some last wishes.Now this film gets more serious, Edda doesn't want to live, she doesn't want to die - she is full of joy and very cranky, just the typical mood swings of someone who has to die.Occasionally some of what she wants reminds a bit of "Knocking on Heaven's Door", the film about two cancer patients who want to go to the sea before they die and have a few adventurous last days. That film is rather a comedy, while "Heiter bis wolkig" is often a bit sadder. It raises a laugh, and it is tear-jerking, especially for people who have seen someone die of cancer. But don't worry, It isn't a depressing film, it's also a kind of fairy tale. Live your own life, try to make your dreams come true - that is the theme of "Heiter bis wolkig".Max Riemelt as Tim, Jessica Schwartz as Edda and Anna Fischer as Marie are excellent, giving their characters some depth and making you feel with them.The title isn't misleading; this film is partly cloudy: sometimes a bit sunnier, sometimes it can rain a bit.