Unexpected

Despite the title, Unexpected was almost exactly what I expected for a German TV movie about a lesbian romance. No real surprises here!

Married couple Marie and Bernd both work together as architects. Their longtime mutual friend, Dom shows up for a visit with his new fiancée, Ayla. Ayla and Marie develop a mutual attraction and mutual affair. Meanwhile, Dom thinks how nice it would be to move in near their good friends, Marie and Bernd. Especially now that Ayla is pregnant. As the affair continues and Marie and Ayla’s lives become more intertwined, Marie searches for a way to have it all: her existing family and husband as well as her new female lover. And Marie thinks she might be able to use her skills as an architect to make her ideal a reality. (Spoiler alert: this does not work.)

While Unexpected brought exactly nothing new to the table, this doesn’t mean the film is bad. This is one of the better TV movies I have seen, especially in the smaller pool of German WLW TV movies. Unexpected does what it needs to do on pretty much every front. The directing is competent, and a few shades above the directing on a Lifetime TV movie. The story is fine too, there’s some depth, some character work. But an above-average TV movie still hits a ceiling of quality. Comparing it more to feature films with similar premises, Unexpected is better than some, but not remotely in the top echelon of the genre of wife having lesbian affair dramas.

There’s so little risk in Unexpected. Though admittedly, this is one of those cases where the risk and novelty is in making a lesbian story and I’m so blind to that now as to not even acknowledge that yes, there aren’t actually many German TV movies about lesbians. Unexpected does stand out in this way. Where it doesn’t stand out is against my pool of knowledge of near 700 lesbian movies. The plot in Unexpected is extremely entry-level. It’s like if you had a character creator screen on a video game and the base figure the game loaded was this movie. You’re expected to edit that base figure, add some additional flair and secondary themes. Unexpected is far too inside the box in its focus and choice of subplots.

The film is at its best when the relationship between Ayla and Marie breaks down. It’s Ayla who’s initially too invested and saying stuff like the baby she conceived with Dom is basically her and Marie’s. But then, it becomes Marie who is the more intense one, certain in her belief that she can fix these problems, somehow using architecture as her main tool. Marie and Bernd are initially depicted as the “boring” couple. But that label hides the fact that while Marie can generally function in society, this affair has unlocked something almost unhinged within her. Plus, she and Bernd’s relationship with sex gets kind of interesting as the film goes on.

The only unexpected thing about Unexpected was the ending. And even there, that might only be true for me. Unexpected ends with a classic, romantic movie cliche scene. And given how the third act of the film had been going, I figured the film was going to subvert the romantic cliche. I thought that was a best way to end this TV romantic drama. Well, I was wrong and the romantic cliche was played straight. Or well, gay. Something about expecting the unexpected, I guess. Or vice-versa. Either way, Unexpected is a slightly above average TV movie done to a decent level of competence. And nothing about it is exciting at all.

Overall rating: 5.8/10

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