The German family dramedy "Sweet Disaster" takes flight during its Oregon premiere at the 2022 BendFilm Festival.

If you’re looking to be so charmed by a film it leaves you with a smile on your face and tears welling in your eyes, Laura Lehmus’ “Sweet Disaster” may be the treat.

The German film is screening this weekend as part of the BendFilm festival, making its Oregon premiere according to the festival website.

Sprinkled with magical realism stemming from protagonist Frida’s (Friederike Kempter) artistic and romantic brain, the film bakes up a story of how loss, love and the unexpected can drive you to extremes.

When Frida arrives home in Berlin after visiting her mother in Norway, she meets depressed pilot Felix (Florian Lukas) as he drowns the sorrow of his recent breakup in a tower of Prosecco at the airport bar. Funny, delightful and very pretty, Felix is a little smitten with this 40-year-old bubbly blonde who decides to sit beside him and share some rye bread she has stashed away. After a short conversation, she persuades him to leave with her, and we are immediately brought forward in time to the couple having a silly, romantic picnic on a hillside.

In the interim, their relationship grown deeper, as we see through Polaroids, but soon Frida finds out she’s pregnant. When she tells him, Felix is happy-ish, but he doesn’t give Frida the balloons-and-confetti reaction she’d expected. A few days later, Felix reveals that he’s back with his ex and leaves Frida, although he’s willing to help where he can.

But she’s determined — to get him back, deliver a safe and happy baby and get on with her life. But life has a funny way of throwing every obstacle at Frida in the process, and the journey of her letting go and finding her village is a delightful yet tragic path.

The serio-comedy laid out by Lehmus and screenwriter Ruth Toma works well enough, though some situations do get a little lost in translation (Germany apparently has more social programs for expectant mothers and less of a penchant than the U.S. for them to work until they’re ready to pop).

Overall, I enjoyed the glimpses into Frida’s absurd scenarios and the images in her imagination. She’s an art instructor at a daycare center specializing in children with disabilities, and her effervescent personality is well-matched for those little vignettes and images. However, it feels like the film forgets about them halfway through, or at least downplays them when it shouldn’t.

While the script isn’t a side-splitter, there are incredibly bright moments of dialogue that are delivered perfectly by the cast, specifically Kempter.

“Sweet Disaster” takes place entirely from Frida’s perspective, and Kempter is able to hold onto the dynamic moments of her colorful mind and relatively positive outlook, and switch into those perspectives as she drops into her sorrow for her lost love and fear over this unexpected pregnancy.

We also get a nice performance from Frida’s teenage whiz-kid neighbor Yolanda, played by Lena Urzendowsky, and a slightly smarmy but not overly greasy one from Lukas.

There’s one simple moment in particular that makes the film glow toward its end, showing that even though Frida is single in her journey toward motherhood, she’s not alone.

“Sweet Disaster” reminds us in its quirky absurdity the power that comes from women helping women when they need it, whether as mentor, friend, neighbor or just someone who’s been there before. And that is the sweetest dish of all.

“Sweet Disaster”

90 minutes

Not rated

3 stars