Actress Karoline Herfurth has built a veritable directing career over the last 10 years and subscribers to the streaming service Netflix can attest to that. There, Beautiful already at number 5 in the chartseven before the new SpongeBob adventure and one of the most successful films of the year.
In the Netflix Top 10: Why Beautiful is so praised
The episodic film tells the story of five women in different phases of life who, in their own way, are confronted with the pressure of ideal images and demands on themselves. Karoline Herfurth herself plays Sonja, for example, who is in a body crisis after the birth of her second child, while Emilia Schüle, as model Julie, struggles with the beauty standards of her job.
Martina Gedeck, Dilara Aylin Ziem and Nora Tschirner offer further perspectives on these specifically female experiences with their characters.
Warner Bros.
Karoline Herfurth’s Wunderschön is number 5 in the Netflix charts
When it was released, Wunderschön received mostly positive reviews. Lisa Ludwig wrote for Moviepilot:
Despite many deliberately celebrated clichés and sometimes a little too hectic storylines, the film provides many laughs and is fun, but beneath the surface there is a pretty depressing truth: You are either too fat or too thin. As a housewife you are not emancipated enough or you work too hard to be a good mother. […] Who says chick flicks are shallow fare? When your own life often feels like a hopeless horror film, every light-hearted punchline is a gift.
The Moviepilot community is enthusiastic – not a given for German films – and gives it an average rating of a very good 7.1 points from over 400 votes cast. This makes it one of the best-rated German films of 2022.
Beautiful 2 is called Beautifulr and is in progress
If you haven’t seen the film yet, you should definitely give Beautiful a chance. Everyone else can watch the sequel Beautiful. Filming ended in July and the story was officially described as follows:
Beautiful […] accompanied many of the beloved characters from the first part on their further journey to finding themselves. The focus is on five women who no longer want to base their lives and their self-worth on being desirable. […] A modern film about modern women and men – who can perhaps find a common language.
Beautiful starts on February 13, 2025 in German cinemas.