Freundinnen fürs Leben

What starts out as a good idea,three 50 something women brought back together following the death of a friend, who as a parting gift leave them 4 tickets for them to take her 18yr old daughter on a cross european train journey to fulfill her dying wish. For a premise that had so much potential, the movie felt flat, slow moving, dull and at the dialogue was painful and corney, rather than funny. The actors were quite good, but werent given a good enough script to work with. Each of the main characters backstories and their individual "issues" werent well explored and it was hard to believe them as friends. There was very little emotional payoff at the end, except relief that it was over.

This clever inversion of the road movie genre sees a group of women trying to recreate their teenage Interrail journey from London to Mallorca and wittily confronting the reality of life in their 50s along the route.

Making the most of its superb cast and great Blondie soundtrack, the film powers through Europe and a succession of misadventures that threaten to derail the journey. Strong female characters are front and centre throughout the film and when Dan (Ben Miller) tries to ride to their rescue he finds the ladies have other ideas.

Trainspotters may quibble about the representation of the European rail network, but film buffs should look out for the cinematic references: the final scene, for example, is a carefully-crafted homage to Thelma & Louise.

The film is released at a difficult time: Brexit and Covid took a toll on the very idea of European travel and, of course, Kelly Preston sadly died last year. However, the essence of the film is a promise of new beginnings and it ends with a sorely-needed message of hope.

This was a sweet film overall. I expected more from the trailer. I enjoyed how this film focuses on the strength in female friendships. Sally Phillips stood out and was hilarious as usual! The plot was weak mind you so I certainly wouldn't lose sleep over missing this.

The script is dull, cliched and not very believable. I also don't think there's a lot of chemistry between the 'friends' (or emotion, it feel contrived). The lack of character development might be explained by a lack of understanding where each person has come from, seeing as they have been separated for so long and have each obviously lead very different lives with different challenges (let alone what they were like when they were young).

If only the script was better, maybe this movie may have had a chance...

I really looked forward to watching this movie and was so disappointed. It was far fetched to the point where we just burst outlaughing. It was never explained what caused the beach to age everyone on it. I didn't realise it was a comedy 😂