Darin
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"42plus" is an Austrian (mostly) German-language movie from 2007, so this one has its 10th anniversary right now. The writer and director is Austrian Sabine Derflinger and she was in her early 40s when she made this one. If you take a look at the cast, you will find a bunch of names like Tukur, Michelsen, Moretti and Matschenz that are certainly known to German-speaking audiences. In the center of this film that runs for roughly 1.5 hours we have a couple played by Tukur and Michelsen and as they go on a trip together we find out about their lack of faithfulness. Michelsen for example has a longtime affair with Moretti's character, a colleague of Tukur's and at the same time she enters into an affair with a very young man played by Matschenz. And we find out a bit about these supporting players too. But the elaborations feel never on a level where we could really feel for the characters or care about what happens to them. And it certainly isn't helping matters at all that they are all really unlikable unfortunately. So yeah, all in all this film is not more eventually than showing us how the elite, pretty rich people here in the center of the movie, knows no moral boundaries or shame. This is a connection that becomes obvious many many times throughout the entire film. I have seen other stuff by Derflinger and not liked it too much, which is why I believe that maybe her approach just isn't in accordance with what I perceive quality film. So my dislike is perhaps a bit of a subjective note. But I still felt that the film turned out eventually as shallow as the people in it. However, I don't think it is a failure, which would have been almost impossible though given the cast. The negative still outweighs the positive and I recommend you to watch something else instead.
