‘All That’s Due’ review: A German family comes undone in Franz Müller’s strained domestic drama

Dir: Franz Müller. Germany. 2025. 104mins

With the assist of her household, Mira (Katharina Derr) has launched into a brand new chapter in her life. She is the supervisor of a grocery store, and has invested her power and her financial savings into the enterprise. The whole lot goes nicely at first, however a collection of setbacks threatens to wipe out all she has labored for. This considerably irritating and strained drama is a sequel to director Franz Müller’s 2009 image Wallace Line (Die Liebe Der Kinder). And whereas it’s under no circumstances important to have seen the earlier movie, All That’s Due will seemingly enchantment most to audiences already conversant in the difficult lives of Mira and her household.

An unshowy, workmanlike home drama

Müller’s 2015 Eire-set comedy Comfortable Hour screened at quite a few festivals together with Munich, Galway and Tallinn Black Nights however, provided that Wallace Line’s pageant journey was predominantly inside Germany, viewers urge for food for the additional adventures of those characters will in all probability be keenest at house. Following its premiere in Filmfest München’s New German Cinema strand, the image might discover additional curiosity on the pageant circuit however might battle to realize a lot traction outdoors of German-speaking territories.

All That’s Due is an unshowy, workmanlike home drama. It’s solidly acted, a narrative informed in small-screen-friendly snippets and glimpses of the lives of its protagonists. It does, nonetheless, lean slightly closely on characters making catastrophic and steadily inexplicable lapses of judgment.

In Wallace Line, Mira was a teen who fell in love with the son of Robert (Alex Brendemühl), the cohabiting romantic companion of her mom Maren (Marie-Lou Sellem). Sixteen years later, Mira is married to former rapper Tarik (Leonidas Emre Pakkan), whose music profession has fizzled out. He takes on the brunt of the childcare tasks of their two ladies, whereas Mira concentrates on rising her enterprise. Maren is lower than impressed by her daughter’s decisions: “You set your sights so low,” she grumbles. “I’m completely happy,” retorts Mira. “In case you say so,” sniffs her mom.

Mira is genuinely content material for some time. She reconnects, by likelihood, together with her mom’s former boyfriend Robert, who’s now married to a Colombian girl. Robert falls again right into a paternal function; he’s supportive and heat in a approach that Maren conspicuously fails to be. So Mira accepts when Robert affords an interest-free mortgage of €80,000 to assist bankroll her new enterprise.

Tarik, then again, is annoyed together with his lot. He regrets the missed get-rich-quick alternative of investing in Bitcoin. He blows your entire mortgage impulsively, with out consulting Mira, on a crypto funding that seems to be a rip-off. Her marriage is in ruins and the connection together with her enterprise companion is strained to breaking level, however Mira can’t deliver herself to confess the reality to Robert. Following a fateful choice to lie, she finds herself caught up in a snowballing mess of deception.

Tarik’s choice to blow the money with out checking together with his spouse is unlikely, however not unattainable. Scams work, in spite of everything, as a result of individuals are determined to imagine there’s a fast and straightforward path to riches. A few of Mira’s lies, then again, appear inexplicable and pointless – falsehoods for the sake of plot expediency slightly than for any logical cause of character motivation. And not using a central kernel of character credibility, the movie feels flimsy and loosely strung collectively, regardless of the very best efforts of the solid.