Meine Teuflisch Gute Freundin (4 Stars)

I wanted to see this film last week, but my flu kept me bedridden. I'm glad it's still being shown this week. Even though it's the end of the second week the cinema was half full, which shows that it has success with the public. The times have already been published for the third week.

The title's literal translation is "My devilishly good friend", but I've read that the official English title is "How to be really bad". I'm curious whether it will be shown outside of Germany.

Lilith Schwarz (on the left in the picture above) leads a boring life. She's 14 years old, but she doesn't have any friends. Her father has arranged for her to have home schooling, and when her education is over she'll work as an accountant in the family business. Her father isn't any normal man, he's the Devil.

Lilith would rather have an exciting life like the demons who work for her father. They visit exciting cities all over the world and tempt people to sin. Her father won't allow this because she's too young, apart from which he doubts she's evil enough to do a good job. Lilith bats her evil little eyelashes at her father and persuades him to offer her a deal. If she can spend a week on Earth and seduce one good person to become evil she can remain on Earth as long as she likes. The deal isn't completely to her liking. Instead of a big city like London, New York or Paris she's sent to Birkenbrunn, a small town on Germany's North Sea coast. Instead of being able to seduce anyone she wants, Lilith has to seduce Greta Birnstein, a girl her own age.

The plan is perfect. Lilith claims to belong to a family that's considering moving to Birkenbrunn, and she's been sent ahead to get used to the school. Until her family arrives she will live with the Birnstein family.

The problem is that Greta is much more of a good girl than Lilith expected. She should have known her father would give her a challenge. However much Lilith tempts her, Greta wants to stay on the right track. There are only two hooks that Lilith can use.

(1) Greta is an outsider who's bullied by her classmates. Revenge?

(2) Greta has a crush on the classroom Casanova Carlo who hasn't even noticed her. Should she dress like a slut to get his attention?

I've never had the Devil's daughter try to seduce me. At least not as far as I know. It would be great fun. I'd resist as long as possible, while intending to give in at the end. But that's just a fantasy. The Devil would never go to such lengths to win me. I consider myself to be a good person, but I'm already guilty of Lust, one of the Seven Deadly Sins, so why should the Devil fight hard to get me?

The film is a straightforward teen comedy, without any deep moral questions. Good and evil are mentioned, but they're just words without any theological significance. I might have enjoyed the film more if there had been questions about the nature of good and evil, but it was good for what it was. It's a fun film that you'll enjoy whether you're 14 or 40.

The advance promotion for the film was done very efficiently. In the seven weeks leading up to the film's release two-minutes web episodes were released online. Here's a link to the first episode. It should be easy for you to find the other six episodes.