The Heartbreak Agency (Die Liebeskümmerer) revolves around a journalist’s journey of falling in love and learning to deal with heartbreak. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Karl is a journalist who writes for a magazine called Splash. Karl’s girlfriend, dissatisfied with their relationship, breaks up with him.
Karl believes that his girlfriend’s heartbreak counselor, Maria Geiger, the founder of the Heartbreak Agency, is to blame for the breakup and decides to interview her.
Maria helps people cope with their heartbreak and move on in life. Karl does not value Maria’s work, nor does he believe that she can help people.
Frustrated because of his breakup, he vents his anger by writing a very sexist article. As Karl publishes the article without his boss’ approval, he gets fired.
No one wants to hire a sexist journalist like Karl, so he has a hard time getting another job. Ultimately, he has no choice but to request his former boss to rehire him.
His boss agrees, but on one condition: Karl must participate in Maria’s heartbreak therapy and write an article about heartbreak with sincerity.
Although Karl finds everybody who comes to the group therapy session insane and is rude to the group, he agrees to complete the entire program to avoid getting kicked out by Maria.
Karl then joins the group on a heartbreak retreat. Eventually, he starts getting along with the group, but he still gives them all bad advice.
One day, he gets to talk to Maria, who now knows that Karl has commitment issues, and realizes that Maria is not very different from him.
Like him, she does not believe in the idea of big romantic love. Maria and Karl’s views on love are very similar.
Soon after, a member of the group, Turgay, follows Karl’s advice and leaves to stop his ex-girlfriend, Timea, from marrying her fiancé instead of getting over her.
Karl and Maria rush to stop Turgay but end up accidentally starting a fire and ruining the wedding. The two of them are then taken to the police station.
This town happens to be Karl’s hometown, and his mother takes Karl and Maria to her home, where Maria finds an engagement ring in Karl’s room.
It turns out that Karl proposed to Claudia, the girl he had been dating since he was fourteen years old, before going to college and got rejected.
Not only that, Claudia panicked and ended her relationship with Karl, which broke his heart. The fact that his parents were divorced exacerbated his commitment issues.
That night, Maria tells Karl about her own heartbreak. Her ex-boyfriend, Olaf, left her and their daughter, Hedi, to save endangered species.
While Olaf was traveling the world, Maria found it hard to move on from him. They are friends now, and he still visits her to meet Hedi.
Karl tells Maria that he would not prioritize saving the planet over being with her, and the two of them end up sleeping together.
When they get back to the hotel the next day, Maria panics about sleeping with Karl and decides to leave before the retreat is over.
Maria has it pointed out to her that she is similar to Karl because, like him, she is also scared of taking risks.
Maria leaves, but not before she and Karl assure each other that the night they spent together did not mean anything.
However, Karl cannot stop thinking about Maria. His roommate, Anton, figures out that Karl has fallen in love with her.
After the retreat, Karl and Maria meet again and hook up. They grow closer the more time they spend together.
When Maria is busy, Karl even offers to babysit Hedi. Surprisingly, Karl is good with children and immediately concludes that Hedi is upset because of a boy.
He teaches her how to skateboard and even gives her his board. With his help, Hedi manages to get the attention of the boy she likes. This results in Karl and Hedi bonding.
Ending explained:
Karl’s heartbreak
Maria cannot help but notice that Karl is good with Hedi. Karl and Maria’s relationship also grows, but they are yet to discuss it.
Karl believes that Maria already knows about his feelings for her, but Maria needs to hear it. The next day, Karl goes to Maria’s house to confess to her.
However, he runs into Olaf, who has returned home for good. Unaware of Maria and Karl’s relationship, Olaf refers to Maria as his girlfriend.
Karl is left heartbroken. He hands over the flowers he brought for Maria to Olaf and leaves without speaking to her.
He meets Hedi on his way out. He says goodbye to her, telling her that he is going away for a while.
Maria’s decision
Olaf tells Maria about his new job, which would allow him to stay close to Maria and Hedi. He regrets leaving the two of them for his work.
Maria is honest with him and tells him that she met someone in his absence. Maria wants to be with Karl, but he keeps avoiding her.
This leads Maria to reconsider her belief that Karl has changed; she begins to think that he is still the same man who avoids commitments.
As Hedi is happy to have her father home, Maria thinks about giving Olaf another chance for her sake.
However, she changes her mind when Hedi tells her that she is happy about her father staying, even if her parents are not together anymore.
Taking a chance
Karl still has to write an article about heartbreak to get his job back. This time, he writes about his own feelings and vulnerabilities, proving that he has changed.
The article impresses his boss, and he gets his job back. Meanwhile, Olaf moves out of Maria’s house, and Maria finds the note that Karl had left for her with the flowers.
Maria had once told Karl that every introvert needs an extrovert to take care of them, and Karl had written that he wanted to be her extrovert.
The moment Maria finds the note, she goes to meet Karl. She asks him to go out for drinks with her, but he refuses.
Karl is not ready to forgive her and is too heartbroken to take another chance at love. He then runs into Zolt, a fellow member of the therapy group.
Zolt and Karl discuss the concepts of destiny and fate. While Karl remains skeptical of these ideas, Zolt firmly believes in them. Karl then introduces Zolt to Anton, who shares Zolt’s beliefs.
Seeing Zolt and Anton have an instant connection reminds Karl of himself and Maria. Karl decides to give his relationship with Maria another chance.
He goes to meet Maria and confesses his love. Although the confession is ruined by a client’s angry girlfriend attacking Karl, Maria and Karl still get their happy ending.