Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen [The Forest for the Trees] (2003) - Germany

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386862/

Plot & Summary

Melanie (Eva Lobau) has decided to leave the country life and move to the city, where she can join the cool people, do cultural things, and generally feel like life isn't passing her by. But Melanie's been out of the 'cool' scene a little too long, and when she sets up her new life, she finds that just wanting new friends and a new life doesn't always mean it's going to happen. She tries hard to fit in and be liked by her new students at the high school she teaches at, but the city is unforgiving, and kids doubly so. In desperation, Melanie practically forces the woman next door to be friends with her by injecting herself into the stranger's life, to results you can see coming a mile away. While Forest for the Trees is exceptionally well set up - Melanie really is a twat, but a well-meaning twat who you just wish would see the error of her ways, that's all that really happens. The longer the film goes, the more of a twat Melanie becomes, making error after error, going from embarrassment to nightmarish disaster, and rather than put us through any kind of real story arc, things just continue on a rapid decline, with the audience almost audibly thinking "oh no, don't do that... no, seriously, that's just... oh, she did it."

Melanie is an idiot. A well-meaning idiot, but an idiot nonetheless, and as she begins to sink in her own paranoia, jealousy and fear, you care less and less. "Go on, make a damn fool of yourself, you silly old bint. What do you want, a supermodel job?" It all just starts to grate after a while. There's little disputing that the film is well made - even though it was shot on digital video, the look of the film is never one that gives you pause for thought, and the scenes themselves are constructed in such a way that you really can't fault debutante writer/director Maren Ade for not knowing how to characterize. Really, the only beef I have with the film is ultimately the one that destroys it - that you reach a point of impatience with the lead character that makes you want to leave her world, all of which makes the ending a case of "I really couldn't care less."

Rating

7.5/10 463 votes


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