In the fourth joint case of the Swiss commissioners Ott and Grandjean, there is more than just equality: from the nasty head of the law firm to the greedy health tech start-up, almost all roles are occupied by women.
Martina Widmer (Theresa Affolter) is standing in her wood-panelled executive office and is furious: her carefully erected house of cards is about to collapse, and now the cleaning lady with the vacuum cleaner is also annoying. "Out, out, out," the lawyer yells and slams the door behind her. Then the head of the office changed her mind, smashed a vase with full force and yelled after her cleaning lady: "Mascha, clean up!"
Humiliating power games, extremely tough demeanor and a penchant for unscrupulousness: Widmer plays on the same keyboard as the old, white men, who are otherwise more accustomed to from the executive chairs in film law firms. And indeed, "the role of star lawyer Widmer was originally created as a man in the script," reveals "Tatort" director Christine Respond. But "there are already so many films with older, powerful men, and I felt it was time to narrate such a role with a strong woman."
But not only these, but with a few exceptions almost all key roles: "In 'Risks with Side Effects', in addition to the female investigator duo, there are also a striking number of women as episodic characters, which is thanks to the authors Stefanie Veith and Nina Vukovic. They wrote the script written and the constellation of characters created in this way," says director Respond.
An exciting and (still) unfamiliar approach, which unfortunately does not work as well as one would wish: "Risks with Side Effects" is simply not a particularly good film: The fourth joint case of the Zurich commissioners Ott (Carol Schuler) and Grandjean (Anna Pieri Zuercher) is full of clichés, the story about a pharmaceutical scandal is very arbitrary.
Of course, that's not because the greedy health tech startup henchman is a greedy health tech startup trulla or the star lawyer with a rediscovered conscience comes along as a star lawyer this time. But it also shows that simply swapping the sexes is not enough to turn a mediocre crime thriller into an exciting case. And that's unfortunately what sticks in your head about this "crime scene" experiment. The Ludwigshafen season opener from last week, which is otherwise not known for subtle nuances, showed how to better clean up with the patriarchy.
