Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Die Wilden Hühner und die Liebe" or "Wild Chicks in Love" is a German children's movie from 2007, so this one has its 10th anniversary this year. It is the second of three films based on the children's novels by Cornelia Funke. The director for all three of these is Vivian Naefe, she is also one the trio who adapted Funke's work for the big screen here. It is easy to see why all four writers are female as this one here a movie really designed for young female audiences. You can call it a bit of a female equivalent to the "Wilde Kerle" movies, even if admittedly these Wilde Hühner films here are certainly not as bad as the ones I just mentioned.Now lets talk a bit about this one in particular: The first is just about the kids going on a bit of an adventure together, just like the third actually, even if there the focus is more on coming of age, but this one here, the middle movie if you want to call it like that, is all about love. The girls are in love with the boys, the teachers are in love with other teachers, the parents are in love with other parents etc. Love is all around. So actually, this could also have made for a great Valentine's Day film, but sadly the quality is not on a level where I would say yes this is a good watch. I also think that they are including too many stories and plots in here, even for a 105-minute film, which is relatively long for a kids movie too. The play, the relationships of Ferres' character, the stuff about fatherhood, the girls' relationships etc. Oh yeah and then there is of course a story about same-sex love as well and resulting from that the film also deals with homophobia. I think this is too important of a subject for the way they handled it here. It was rushed in, the elaboration was really weak and in the end they split up anyway. Not convinced. Not at all. Oh yeah, sadly Jessica Schwarz is also completely wasted (even more than in the first if I remember correctly) and that's such a shame to be honest. Instead Veronica Ferres gets her own story line that could have been taken (with the exception of the somewhat solid ending) right out of a Rosamunde Pilcher movie.Talking about the ending, I think it is fairly obvious that they knew already there would be (at least) one more Wild Chicks movie after this one. It's easy to see from the last camera shot and quote. Another negative aspect here is the music and what I heard convinced me that the cast really did not have a great deal of talent at all when it comes to music. That's perfectly fine, but then don't let them sing and you have to blame the makers for this. Can't really blame the kids. Maybe you can blame the kids for some of the acting which wasn't really convincing though, or blame the casting directors, but there were maybe 2 child actors/actresses in here that should not have been cast because of their (lack of) talent. Lead actress Michelle von Treuberg really convinced me however and I think she did a good job with the material that she was given. I wish this film could have been much more about her character than about all the others. Also I wished she would still perform, but looks as if she has been following other career paths for a while now. And this includes Paula Riemann as well, who for whatever reason is second-billed here. She has very little talent (then again her mother is extremely overrated too) and screen time.So by now you probably already realized I did not enjoy this film and I thought it was as weak as the first, even if for other reasons. It is not a really bad or really disappointing work, but the bad outweighs the good I must say. I don#t recommend checking it out and my hope hat at least the third film will be better is relatively low, unless it really mostly focuses on MvT's character. Anyway, to end the review on a positive note still, let me say that the sequence where they remember their oath from the first film early on while looking into this Wild Chicks book was touching and a thing of beauty. Sadly, the only one here.
