Bored teenager Karsten Zenker (Florian Bartholomai) plans a wild summer in Spain celebrating his graduation, but his traveling salesman father Wolfgang (Edgar Selge), insists he stay behind and help him with his dreary job supplying dowdy clothes to local fashion outlets for women aged 35 and older. Wolfgang lost his driving license for speeding and demands that Karsten act as his chauffeur. While peddling clothes for women around town, they meet rival workaholic salesman Steven Brookmüller (Roman Knizka). He plans to undercut Wolfgang's prices and steal all his customers with a range of upmarket garments.
A competition begins, but Wolfgang is going bankrupt and his wife Erika (Franziska Walser) discovers her husband's financial mismanagement. Add to this the interference of Brigitta (Traute Höss), Erika's Bavarian busybody friend. Things heat up when closeted Karsten falls in love with good-looking Steven, and the feeling is mutual. The end denouement between father and son is nearly perfect. It is a memorably happy moment, even topping Erika's wonderful final scene with Karsten ("I know--I understand--I accept"). What more could any gay boy ask for?
This light-hearted piece of entertainment sets out to be a comedy of manners. The many relationships between the characters provide their own quirky sub-plots. It's all fairly predictable in the romantic-comedy sense, and considerable suspension of disbelief is required. Why would Karsten put up with his father's treatment of him? Nevertheless, the acting is decent, especially the minor characters such as Erika and Brigitta. If you are looking for light, unchallenging entertainment, with a small dose of sentimentality, "Reine Geschmacksache" will fill the bill. "Reine Geschmacksache" translates as "clearly a matter of taste/preference", and as the Romans said, "You cannot argue over matters of preference." Martina Eisenreich composed the music, and the screenplay was written by Tom Streuber and Ingo Rasper, who also directed. In German with English subtitles. The English title is "Fashion Victims".
