Young Werther – A Charismatic Yet Average Romcom

Based on a 1774 novel titled “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Young Werther aims to be a modern retelling of the classic novel. A Canadian indie filmed in the heart of Toronto, the film is a romantic comedy (very loose definition of a romance and a comedy if we’re being honest) centred around Werther (Booth), an affluent mid-20 something year old who encounters Charlotte (Pill), a woman who he immediately falls in love with. The problem? She’s engaged to Albert (Adams), a seemingly okay and standup guy, if a little obsessed with work. Featuring many of the tropes commonly seen in romantic comedies, it more so deals with unrequited love, rather than a full on love triangle. Charming overall, its second act drags the film and changes the tone from a simple romantic comedy to something that feels entirely different.

Running into Charlotte mere hours into his journey in Toronto, Werther is almost instantly invited to her birthday party, but it’s only then that he discovers her prior engagement. Like any typical romcom, he sees this as a challenge, determined to win her over and prove that he’s better than Albert. Befriending Albert and Charlotte, Werther starts hanging out with their family. The first half of the film essentially plays out like a “will they, won’t they” situation, leaving the audience (most of whom, assumingly, likely have little knowledge of the classic novel), wondering if Charlotte was going to leave her fiancé and start dating Werther. However, to the film’s credit, it does not progress like a stereotypical romance film. Rather, it explores the complexities of relationships, even if it ends up being rather surface level in the end. Meanwhile, the second half of the film isn’t nearly as strong as the first. Breaking things off with Werther and suddenly getting married to Albert, he devolves into a borderline stalker, determined to win Charlotte over.

To Booth’s credit, he plays Werther well, he’s charming enough that, audiences will initially find themselves wanting to root for him, despite his narcissism and childish ways. Before he becomes a stalker, he’s almost endearing, but his behaviour later in the film becomes almost grating to watch. Despite the fact that this is indeed an adaptation, the change in tone from the first half to the second half unfortunately brings the film down. While it is an interesting look into the other side of rom-coms, the movement into stalker behavior brings out Werther’s narcissism to the fullest extent. And yes, that is the point, mostly, over-the-top behaviour that all began with love at first sight, but actually watching it unfold made the film drag. Only at the end does Werther have a self-realization about how awful he’s been the entire time, as Albert just needs to stop being so ingrained in his work. And not only does the plot become grating going into the third act, the overall story begins to drag, drawn on 10-15 minutes too long.

The characters themselves are fine, there’s nothing super deep about them, and in all honesty, they aren’t that interesting and have very little for audiences to cling onto. Werther is a privileged 20-something year old travelling the world, he’s a writer but doesn’t write much, and though he is charismatic, he was never interesting as the forefront of the film. Charlotte is a little more interesting to watch, perhaps because she’s essentially the foil to Werther’s entire personality and not much more. The rest of the cast almost suffers the same fate. Though none of this lack of characterizations is necessarily a deal breaker, the film never presented itself as anything more than what it was, so deeply introspective characters were never going to happen. That being said, Werther’s failure as an interesting main character, after his charm wore off, made most of the film feel like a chore.

Both Pill and Booth are excellent and have excellent chemistry, more so than Pill and Adams, as the cast fits into their roles well. Adams portrays Albert with the perfect amount of “he’s just fine” energy. There’s nothing wrong with Albert, he seems to care about Werther and his future wife, but there’s seemingly nothing special about him other than his obsession with his job as a lawyer. Amrit Kaur appears relatively little throughout the runtime as Melanie, but her background in comedic work is clear here and she is as funny as ever. Iris Apatow is fine as Sissy, but is also the weakest of the group as her performance felt over-the-top and never stood out.

Young Werther isn’t a bad per se, it is certainly charismatic and has its charm and appeal as it offers up an interesting take on the romantic comedy. However, its third act stops the film from ever soaring, making is titular character’s stalker-ish behaviour grating to watch. This, along with its a thin plot and characters, prevent it from soaring above the realm of average. While the performances are good and the chemistry is there, the film is just not one that many will be thinking about long after the credits roll.

still courtesy of VVS Films

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Jasmine Graham