Joy of Fatherhood
Joy of Fatherhood
| 06 February 2014 (USA)
Joy of Fatherhood Trailers

A sperm donor becomes impotent - and so he searches for the woman, who got his sperm, to become a father after all...

Reviews
AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks
Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) This 105-minute movie has it. It is an absolute disgrace that this was actually by far the most successful German movie from 2014 in terms of box-office. Many good German films were released that year and hardly anybody saw them, but they went for rubbish like this one? Let's start at the beginning: This was the third film he directed and the second he wrote. Of course, he also plays the lead character. And honestly, he is probably not even among the 1,000 most talented filmmakers and actors in Germany and yet he is probably among the 5 most known in both categories. And what's even worse is that he co-wrote the script with roughly 5 other people and this is what they come up with? An absolute embarrassment. The dialogs are stupid. The jokes are almost never funny, but always try so hard to be funny. The dramatic portions have serious music and this film takes itself so seriously in these. The characters are complete nonsense. Their actions are completely unrealistic and their interactions are cringeworthy from start to finish.Schweighöfer casted a female lead actress, who is not particularly talented, not really good-looking and also not famous at all, even here in Germany. Obviously, the only purpose behind that casting decision was that she would not take away any spotlight from him. Friedrich Mücke is not a good actor either and is really only in it because he's a longtime pal of Schweighöfer. And he casted a couple people more from his usual posse including his mother Gitta and Tim Sander for example. Actually talented actors like Katharina Schüttler and Milan Peschel (another Schweighöfer buddy) are wasted in small roles where they don't get to show an ounce of their talent, because otherwise they would be destroying the Schweighöfer show. Another great problem with this movie is realism. The main character's brother brings a ferret and the animal bites him into his genitals (haha oh so funny!) right after he made a donation at a sperm bank. Of course, he is infertile now. And of course, he gets together with the mother of his soon-to-be child. And of course her actual boyfriend can't father children either. And of course he is cheating on her. And of course, the brother crashes into the guy while he is cheating on her. God... this is such a terrible terrible film. But what would you expect from a movie that advertises with Tom Beck being in the cast.The perfect way to describe this film is maybe to call it a very poor man's version of a Til Schweiger movie. If you know a couple of these, you will know that, frequently, they are fairly mediocre as well. The humor is sometimes similar, but even far worse in here. And next to Schweighöfer's acting, Schweiger looks like Daniel Day-Lewis. The only hope I have is that they will not make a sequel to this huge piece of crap at some point, maybe something about adoption or so. Highly not recommended. The only positive thing it has that there is a cute ferret in there. Everything else is complete rubbish. Stay far, far away.
kosmasp It starts off pretty well (and somewhat annoying, but that can be overlooked, especially considering the title of the movie and the first scene we get expectation wise). But it's not going places you'd hope it might go or achieve goals it sets out to reach. And that is not as much the fault of the predictable story, but has more to do with the inability to convey emotions most of the time.Matthias Schweighöfer seems to be a nice guy and he's very well liked in Germany. I reckon because of his personality and looks. It couldn't really have to do anything with his acting abilities (if you want to call them that). He's also directing this one and the behind the scenes videos show, that he can be energetic and crowd pleasing.Since this is a German production, it does not skip on the sexual themes/nature of the subject. Something you should be aware of, even though the movie was rated "6+" in Germany, which only shows you how they rate those things here (and I'm saying this without criticism). Unfortunately the same does not apply on other "adult" themes. Watch at your own leisure, but be aware of the downfalls
Karl Self The premise of the movie: Matthias Schweighöfer is a cute guy, and somehow people are willing to pay cold cash to see a movie where he gets his girl. Here, he has donated at a sperm bank to earn a bit of cash, then he decides that he wants to meet the future biological mother who has, ahem, difficult to put this in a civilised manner, profited from his donation. Of course, she's an attractive, high-powered TV anchorwoman who falls for the charming slacker (wonderful contrast between a modern working girl and a male airhead here, which allows women watching this to emphazise with the female character and feel good about themselves) when she sees, in several stomach-curdling scenes, that he's good with kids and that. At this point we find out that our hero has had a traumatic past, which is dutifully resolved for the closing scene.This was my first movie with Schweighöfer, who is kind of a younger version of Til Schweiger. I promise to stay clear of his movies so that you won't have to read any more nasty slatings, OK darlings? The movie is set in Munich, and if you're vaguely familiar with the city it's funny to note how incongruently the locations are strung together (e. g. a supposedly short bicycle ride starts in the north of the city, then we're suddenly in the south, then in the north again). That's not a negative, I'm just observing. Some of the supporting actors, such as the male lead's brother Ralph (Tom Beck) are quite good and have memorable lines ("He's not the right guy for her." -- "What?" -- "Have you noticed how his earlobes are attached to his head?" -- "And?" -- "He's a marked man, I'll say no more") and offer some relief from Schweighöfer. The camera-work is far too slick for my taste, there is always a spotlight aimed at the hairdos even when the scene takes place at night in Antactica, and the images have been Photoshopped.Usually I'd say five out of ten. But I suspect my girlfriend fancies Schweighöfer. So I say four out of ten.