Today (Monday, December 13th, 2021) at 8:15 p.m., ZDF is showing a Christmas comedy with many clichés. In “Mona & Marie” two dissimilar sisters have to pull themselves together.
Cologne – It’s Christmas on German television. Today (Monday, December 13th, 2021) there is a first broadcast on ZDF, in which everything revolves around the festival of love. The 90-minute TV film “Mona & Marie”, which has the subtitle “A slightly different Christmas story”, has a prominent cast and is therefore a classic family comedy. Is it worth turning on the second one today? We look at the plot, cast, locations and reviews.
“Mona & Marie” today (December 13th, 2021) on ZDF: What is the plot of the TV film?
The story that “Mona & Marie” (ZDF) wants to tell seems rather old-fashioned at first glance: It’s about quarreling sisters who have to pull themselves together again after a stroke of fate in the run-up to Christmas. On the one hand, there is the big city diva Mona, whose dream of the perfect party breaks when her husband Gregor dies of a heart attack. When it comes out that the deceased has cheated on Mona and all the family assets are gone, her life is in ruins.
On the other side is hippie sister Marie, whom Mona’s son Jonas contacts after his father’s death. Marie is not having an easy time either. With her holiday pension she is in massive financial difficulties and her long-time partner Harald suddenly comes out as gay. Knowing full well that the Christmas tree balls will fly, the two dissimilar sisters come together. Despite everything, do “Mona & Marie” have a nice Christmas party?
“Mona & Marie” today (December 13th, 2021) on ZDF: Details on production and locations
Filming for “Mona & Marie” began in Cologne in February 2020, but was interrupted after only four days due to the corona pandemic. The cameras were not running again until February 2021. The Christmas market that can be seen in the film was built especially for production on the Vulkan site in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. Other locations are in Bonn and Friesland. The main character Marie’s holiday pension is on the North Sea island of Pellworm. Warner ITVP Germany produced the comedy on behalf of ZDF. Marco Petry (“My friend, the disgust”, “Heiter bis cloudy”, “School”) was directed by a veteran.
“Mona & Marie” today (December 13th, 2021) on ZDF: Who are the main actresses in the film?
Two established TV greats play the leading roles in “Mona & Marie”. Maren Kroymann takes on the role of city diva Mona Berthold. The 72-year-old Kroymann has been on the cultural scene since the 1980s. Besides her roles in film and television (including “Maria, he doesn’t taste it!”, “Persecuted”, “Mein Leben & Ich ”) , she is best known as a successful cabaret artist and singer. For four years she has had her own ARD entertainment show called “Kroymann”.
Co-protagonist Ulrike Kriener has been in the business for as long as Kroymann. Her best-known TV role is that of Commissioner Ellen Lucas, whose crime film series of the same name has been running on ZDF since 2003. In 2010 she was awarded the German Television Prize for Best Actress for the mini-series “Climate Change”. In addition to her acting career (including “Willkommen bei den Hartmanns”, “Feinde”, “Tatort”), she is involved in social projects. In “Mona & Marie” Kriener plays the spiritual Marie Decker.
| role | Actress or actor |
|---|---|
| Mona Berthold | Maren Kroymann |
| Marie Decker | Ulrike Kriener |
| Sophie Berthold | Susanne Bormann |
| Jonas Berthold | Max Bretschneider |
| Chiara Ott | Ann-Kathrin Kramer |
| Ahmet Uyan | Aykut Kayacik |
| Harald Friedrich | Peter Prager |
“Mona & Marie” today (December 13th, 2021) on ZDF: This is how the reviews are
- Sven Hauberg writes for the TV magazine “Prisma” that, thanks to its clichés, “Mona & Marie” is a film that “sounds terrible on paper”. The fact that the Christmas comedy “works” for the critic is due in particular to the strong leading actresses and their “snappy sayings”.
- Thomas Klingenmaier’s verdict on the ZDF production is less positive for the “Stuttgarter Zeitung”. The “Christmas touching piece” about the two quarreling sisters suffered from “forced turns, character breaks and weak gags”. Especially towards the end, “Mona & Marie” loses its appeal for the author.
- The ZDF comedy hardly gets beyond anything more than mediocre in criticism. Next example: On the film blog “tittelbach.tv”, journalist Martina Kalweit states that “a few nice tips” at the beginning cannot prevent “Mona & Marie” from becoming a “moderately enjoyable lesson with a forgiving outcome”.
(ag)
