Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Lila, Lila" or "My Words, My Lies - My Love" is a German 100-minute movie from 7 years ago. The director is Alain Gsponer and writer Alex Buresch adapted Martin Suter's novel for the big screen here. The three main characters are played by Daniel Brühl, Hannah Herzsprung and Henry Hübchen, all 3 fairly with good careers and many awards under their belts. And their performances are mostly fine I guess, at least Brühl and Hübchen. Herzsprung I am pretty biased on because I don't see her as a talented actress, but I guess here she was still better than usual. It is really tough to say which character from the trio is the least likable. People may say they are fine, but they have flaws, but I definitely do not agree with this theory. Brühl's character is not scared of becoming famous and popular for an achievement by somebody else. You can say in his favor that he really only wanted to impress Marie and that things went completely wrong and he lost control over it and also did not say the truth to avoid public humiliation. The ending, however, makes him look pretty bad in terms of character. Marie (Herzsprung) is possibly the least likable for me. And the reason may be that she was actually intended to be likable. She has no interest in the protagonist when he is just a waiter. She is bossy and pushy during their relationship and her holier-than-thou attitude is painful to watch. Plus, she really enjoys the spotlight, being the girlfriend to the big new shining star in literature. And finally Hübchen: He is a pretty miserable and alone character which somehow explains his longing for friendship and that he wants to have his moment in the spotlight too. But his behavior makes others feel miserable too and destroys the relationship between the other two main characters.Luckily the story has a handful good moments and is an interesting watch in general with all the plot twists happening. This film shows that it is sometimes better to have characters with shades than only people who are either 100% good or 100% bad. In my opinion, the movie works and I think it was pretty difficult to come up with a somewhat satisfying ending (even if the actual ending was somewhat predictable), but they managed and that certainly took some skill. As a whole, "Lila, Lila" is nowhere near Brühl's best film or performance, but it is also far away from his worst achievements. Hübchen was possibly the best thing about the film and it gets a lot better when he enters the screen around the 40-minute mark. Most of the action before that felt mediocre for the most part. Luckily, he is in it for the remaining 60 minutes until the film ends. This is the reason why I give it a ***/***** and not a **/*****. I think it is worth checking out, especially if you like Brühl as an actor (more than I do). Thumbs up. However, I cannot take the film seriously for its romantic aspects (mostly because of Herzsprung), but in terms of all other genres, especially drama, it delivers. Watch it.