Das schönste Geschenk meines Lebens (2003)

Interior designer Barbara Seeberg simply takes care of everything: her unreliable husband Johannes, her dependent, adult daughters Amelie and Freddy, her discerning mother, her little granddaughter, the household and her business. She hardly ever cares about herself. That changes when Barbara, in the middle of preparations for her 50th birthday, discovers that her husband is cheating on her - as so often before. But this time she will pay her husband back with the same coin. In a mixture of anger, sadness and a thirst for adventure, Barbara asks the likeable kiosk owner Enrico Aleramo to accompany her on a short vacation and escapes with him to the idyllic Amalfi coast. But Enrico's happy, noisy extended family is already waiting for them at the port. At first, Barbara is anything but happy about this unexpected reception committee. Despite the family "siege", Barbara begins to fall in love with Enrico. For the first time she experiences that someone takes care of her. Enrico, who has adored Barbara for a long time, and the flair of the Italian summer in Enrico's old family villa enchants her. The tender togetherness is suddenly disrupted: The female part of Barbara's family suddenly stands with bag and bag in front of the door of Enrico's property in need of renovation to celebrate her 50th birthday. In shock, Barbara introduces Enrico to lover as her "gardener". Offended, he flirts unrestrainedly with Barbara's pretty daughters and, with his charm, wraps the nagging grandmother around her finger. Barbara observes this disgruntled. She had imagined her birthday to be a little different. While Enrico's debt-ridden family believes that Barbara is the long-awaited buyer of their property, Barbara's relatives of course immediately sense an outright intrigue: Does the shrewd Italian Casanova only want to exempt Barbara? Barbara's flight to Italy unexpectedly sets off a loud German-Italian family row.