Die Putzfraueninsel

Extremely unbalanced comedy that never knows to choose between realism and fairy tale. E.g., of all the scenes with the ruthless daughter-in-law it is never clear whether these are meant as funny caricatures or horrible realism In other words: director Peter Timm has no control over the material, he did not really know what to do with it.

All this makes the action hard to accept: how could the so mentally strong grandmother wind up in the cellar in the first place?; this is just not made believable. The son is not only a weak character, he hardly seems necessary for the story. And what about the little girls: why are they in the story; how much do they know? And than I will let the cliches be, but one: the ending can be predicted at the beginning of the film.

Both Jasmin Tabatabai and Christine Oesterlein save this film from complete downfall.

If you see this movie in a film theater you are definitely attending a sneak preview. I saw it the same way. It's one of these films you really don't want to spend money for. There are some funny dialogues and even one exciting chase, but all in all this is just a C movie. In my rating system a C rating means "worth seeing on TV".