"Coming In" is a German(-language) movie from 2014, so this one was released roughly 2 years ago. The writer and director of these 100 minutes is Bavarian filmmaker Marco Kreuzpaintner, whose most known work is the gay-themed drama "Sommersturm" and with this more recent work here, he once again enters the world of LBGT films, even if it is really almost all about the comedy for this one. The central male character is played by Kostja Ullmann and the female protagonist is played by Aylin Tezel. I cannot really say anything too bad about the latter. The material she has to work with here and the way her character were written are simply ridiculously bad, but here and there she still manages to give the film some moments of honesty and authenticity which is quite an achievement. Ullmann, however, proves once again that he is not a mediocre actor. He is not an actor whose performances you just consider completely forgettable and don't memorize one day after you see them. This is not what he is. What he is is an actor who is so bad that he destroys entire films with his completely inappropriate performances. It is very easy to see here, even if it is tough to say if he is worse than the script he was given here. Too close to call. Supporting characters are played by actually a handful of pretty well-known and successful German actors, but all of these characters are just too insignificant to save the film or they are just bad as well in terms of how they were written. I will not mention the names in detail, just a quick note on Katja Riemann because I wondered totally why she is first credit for this film because her character as well as performance are entirely forgettable overall.
The story here is about a young famous homosexual hairdresser and what happens when he actually falls in love with a woman. The way the film deals with this subject gives gay people a really bad name as it implies that they want gay icons to "stay gay" instead of living in accordance with their real sexuality, exactly what they criticize about homophobes. I have no idea to what extent this is true, but the film tries to tell us it is. And then, out of nowhere, at the very end, this approach is completely gone and everybody wants Ullmann's character just to be happy. Oh well, sacrifice all plot developments, all realism, everything for a gooey disgusting happy ending. And as if that isn't (bad) enough already, lets just include a gay marriage proposal for the sake of it so that the homosexuals are satisfied again as well. Truly cringeworthy stuff and this film here has absolutely nothing to do with reality. Looking at how prolific Kreuzpaintner was in the 15 years before this film, I find it shocking how little he apparently understands about quality writing. I cannot comment a whole lot about the direction. It wasn't particularly good or bad I guess, but got overshadowed by the abysmal screenplay and terrible lead actor casting decision. Overall, Tezel is really the only somewhat shining light in here that keeps the film from being an even bigger disaster, even if the fact she falls for Ullmann's character is not helping things either, but yeah you cannot blame her for the script I guess. Overall, a definite contender for weakest German film from 2014 and you need to stay far far away.
The story here is about a young famous homosexual hairdresser and what happens when he actually falls in love with a woman. The way the film deals with this subject gives gay people a really bad name as it implies that they want gay icons to "stay gay" instead of living in accordance with their real sexuality, exactly what they criticize about homophobes. I have no idea to what extent this is true, but the film tries to tell us it is. And then, out of nowhere, at the very end, this approach is completely gone and everybody wants Ullmann's character just to be happy. Oh well, sacrifice all plot developments, all realism, everything for a gooey disgusting happy ending. And as if that isn't (bad) enough already, lets just include a gay marriage proposal for the sake of it so that the homosexuals are satisfied again as well. Truly cringeworthy stuff and this film here has absolutely nothing to do with reality. Looking at how prolific Kreuzpaintner was in the 15 years before this film, I find it shocking how little he apparently understands about quality writing. I cannot comment a whole lot about the direction. It wasn't particularly good or bad I guess, but got overshadowed by the abysmal screenplay and terrible lead actor casting decision. Overall, Tezel is really the only somewhat shining light in here that keeps the film from being an even bigger disaster, even if the fact she falls for Ullmann's character is not helping things either, but yeah you cannot blame her for the script I guess. Overall, a definite contender for weakest German film from 2014 and you need to stay far far away.