Three fathers on a dubious rescue mission – in IT’S FOR YOUR BEST A scenario arises that was most recently seen in “Monsieur Claude and his Daughters”. But here you can at least laugh without hesitation. We reveal more about this in our review.
OT: It’s for your own good (DE 2020)
The plot
They couldn’t be more different: Arthur (Heiner Lauterbach) is a conservative business lawyer and lives in a magnificent city villa in Berlin. Kalle (Jürgen Vogel) is a construction worker and a buddy type with increased potential for aggression. And Yus (Hilmi Sözer), who needs harmony, works as a physiotherapist. But the three brothers-in-law have one thing in common: their daughters have fallen in love! Arthur’s daughter Antonia (Janina Uhse) cancels her wedding to an aspiring lawyer because she has lost her heart to a left-wing do-gooder (Jacob Matschenz). Kalle’s daughter Luna (Lisa-Marie Koroll) has fallen for a nude photographer (Andreas Pietschmann), who turns out to be her father’s former classmate. And Yus’ daughter Sophie (Lara Aylin Winkler) secretly skips school to spend every free second with Andi (Junis Marlon), who has contacts in the drug scene. So the unlikely trio of fathers makes a secret pact: the unloved future sons-in-law have to go! Behind the backs of their wives and daughters, the self-proclaimed “super brothers-in-law” embark on a crazy mission to get rid of their admirers. By all means!
criticism
The French comedy “Monsieur Claude and his Daughters” became a huge surprise success six years ago. Although it came with a bad aftertaste, because with its unpleasantly displayed “You’ll probably still be allowed to say that!” mentality, Philippe de Chauveron’s directorial work, which even received a sequel in 2019, Danger, was literally begging for applause the wrong side. Marc Rothemund’s “It’s for Your Best” is actually based on a successful comedy from Spain (“Es Por Tu Bien”), but since it is virtually unknown in this country, you can’t avoid a comparison with “Monsieur Claude”. In this case, there are three fathers who are worried about the amorous future of their daughters and therefore make a pact to get rid of the supposedly unwholesome men as quickly as possible. Thankfully, “It’s for Your Best” refrains from adding any political-ethnic discussions to the father-in-law-son-in-law feuds; The highest point of emotion is the conflict between conservative bigwigs and left-wing anarchists, and the disputes that arise from this are, like everything else about “It’s for Your Good,” harmless.
Who hides the coke in the bully’s son’s locker? Kalle (Jürgen Vogel), Arthur (Heiner Lauterbach) and Yus (Hilmi Sözer).
This was initially announced very differently, because long before the press reported on the upcoming cinema release, a mini-scandal surrounding the film poster was making the rounds. On social networks, some attentive film fans were upset that the poster for “It’s for Your Best” only shows the names of the three main actors Heiner Lauterbach, Jürgen Vogel and Hilmi Sözer, but not those of their film daughters Janina Uhse and Lisa -Marie Koroll and Lara Aylin Winkler, let alone some of the other (female) supporting actresses. Although this outcry was certainly not entirely unfounded, the subject of the dispute is hardly sexist in origin. Even though there is now a new poster version, it is simply common practice to print either the most famous and/or the most important names of actresses and actors for the film on a poster – and the focus of “It is for your own good” is now sometimes Lauterbach, Vogel and Sözer, who not only cover a large part of the running time alone, but also whose point of view is the script by Hans G. Raeth (“Man has to go through it”) and Felix Starck consistently takes. Now, of course, you can still ask the question to what extent the story theme is still contemporary. The motif of the overprotective father, who distrusts his daughter’s new boyfriend and therefore primarily distrusts her and also denies the ability to make his own decisions, seems thoroughly antiquated.
“Especially in the second half, the motives behind why the fathers go to war with such self-sacrifice against their daughters’ partners gradually emerge.”
But even if there are one or two gags in “It’s for Your Best” that come to nothing because their construction is predictable, old-fashioned or simply not funny, in the end the film is convincing above all because After “My Blind Date with Life” and “This Stupid Heart,” director Marc Rothemund once again does a good job of combining humor with heart – even if “It’s for Your Best” only seems predestined to a limited extent for the difference between the two Despite the escapades of the “super brothers-in-law” who use their gross motor skills to scheme against their sons-in-law, there is still room for emotions. But it exists. Particularly in the second half, the motives behind why the fathers campaign so selflessly against their daughters’ partners gradually emerge. Although it would not require any deep psychological analysis to recognize that the fear of imminent loss, the clumsy handling of exceptional interpersonal situations or simply an aversion to conflict is the cause of the fathers’ behavior, the script is nevertheless delicate enough to do so not to praise blindly as passionate fatherly love. And so the happy ending consists of the fathers finally seeing their daughters as grown women, while they are seriously reprimanded for their behavior.
Luna (Lisa-Marie Koroll) protects her boyfriend Pierre (Andreas Pietschmann) from her father.
However, that doesn’t mean that Heiner Lauterbach (“Grandchildren for beginners”)Jürgen Vogel (“God, you can be an ass”) and Hilmi Sözer (“The Wolf Gang”) Beforehand, we were not allowed to go overboard in keeping with the premise. Curiously, “It’s for Your Good” is always funniest when the scenes seem as little contrived as possible. When the three of them bottle up Antonia’s do-gooder friend Alex in a club the night before the wedding and then put them on a tour bus while completely drunk, it’s audacious enough to make you smile, but it’s also a typical, not necessarily particularly creative comedy – Movie scene. “It’s for your own good” has its strengths elsewhere – namely whenever the absurd behavior of the three super brothers-in-law collides with their unsuspecting environment and whimsy meets whimsy. The first meeting between the conservative Arthur and his left-wing activist son-in-law is one of them. But also Kalle’s regular outbursts of anger, to which his wife now only reacts with annoyance instead of being seriously intimidated by them.
“’It’s for your own good’ is always funniest when the scenes seem as little contrived as possible.”
Lauterbach, Vogel and Sözer only have to move out of their previous comfort zone to a limited extent for their performances. The interaction between the three is the heart of the entire film, even though none of them are particularly challenged in terms of acting. This also applies to the rest of the cast, from which the former “Bibi & Tina” actress Lisa-Marie Koroll stands out most, who undergoes a type change in “It is for your best” for which she can only be congratulated . Together with Janina Uhse (“The first name”) and Lara Aylin Winkler (“Rate Your Date”) She completes a harmonious trio of daughters, of which one would have liked to have seen a little more at the end.
Conclusion: A likeable comedy with a surprising amount of heart – “It’s for your best” is the USA answer to “Monsieur Claude and his daughters”, only without the unpleasant racist undertones and with charismatic main characters.
“It’s for your best” can be seen in USA cinemas from October 8th.
