Jessica Kiang writes.
In a film festival there are roughly three types of film you can expect: the genuinely provocative, boundary-pushing “edgy” movies that will never get another release due to their niche appeal; the already-successful indie projects that arrive with a pedigree having been talked up at other festivals; and finally, there are the movies that, simply by virtue of being in a different language, are deemed appropriate festival fare, no matter how mainstream their sensibility.
The German-language “My Words, My Lies – My Love” from director Alain Gsponer belongs firmly in the third category – even while watching it you can recast it in your head as a Hollywood romcom without anything getting lost in translation (I landed on maybe Paul Rudd and Drew Barrymore for the leads).
Which is to say, it’s an enjoyable, attractively played genre film that mostly succeeds in its modest ambitions. The story goes: David Kern (Daniel Brühl), a waiter with no discernible ambition or talent but an unrequited crush on literary student Marie (Hannah Herzsprung), finds a manuscript in a stuck drawer, and passes it off as his own, becoming an overnight literary sensation. He gets the girl and everything’s rosy till the volatile Jacky (Henry Hübchen, or in my mental Hollywood remake Jack Nicholson/Al Pacino) turns up claiming to be the real author and blackmails his way into David’s life. There are some surprising elements, including the relationship between David and Jacky becoming something more touching and paradoxical than the topline might suggest, but mostly things proceed as you might expect, with Brühl’s likeability, and Herzsprung’s winsomeness in an underwritten role, really carrying the whole endeavour.
It’s gentle and light as a bubble, but a perfectly amiable way to spend 104 minutes. Just one thing: Hollywood, when you inevitably remake this, please – no Adam Sandler.
