Final Rating: 3.5/5
Just in time for the 250th anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s smash-hit novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, José Lourenço’s Young Werther adapts the story for modern audiences and moves Werther to Toronto.
In Young Werther, Douglas Booth plays Werther, a rich, well-educated romantic from Montreal who passes through Toronto ahead of a vacation to Europe with his friend Paul (Jaouhar Ben Ayed). While in Toronto, he meets Charlotte (Alison Pill), a reserved, bookish young woman celebrating her birthday with her sister and friends. Over the course of an evening, the two grow close, and Werther – not one to let a nice evening simply remain as such – falls madly in love with her. There’s a wrinkle, however: as Charlotte is getting in a car to leave, she reveals that she is engaged to Albert (Patrick J. Adams).
Werther is a classic love triangle. Werther, undeterred by Charlotte’s engagement, quickly establishes himself as her best friend, and a good friend to Albert. With Albert’s work as a successful lawyer consuming much of his time, Charlotte is often overcome by loneliness, which Werther is happy to alleviate. Though Charlotte’s friend Melanie (Amrit Kaur) points out that Charlotte is in an “emotional affair”, Charlotte is happy to see her relationships with Werther and Albert as completely separate. Werther, meanwhile, sees every action he takes as furthering his goal of sweeping Charlotte off her feet, stealing her from Albert, and rescuing her from a life of boredom.
Booth as Werther and Pill as Charlotte have excellent chemistry, their courtship creating a sweet and convincing love story. In their scenes alone, they dig deep into their characters, creating fully realized and relatable people.
Booth plays Werther as a delightfully charming narcissist. A man of means, Werther brags about his time in finishing school, spends extravagantly, and never has anything important enough going on to distract him from his romantic pursuits. Around company, he’s charismatic, and earnestly befriends everyone around Charlotte.
While he may have ulterior motives, he clearly respects Albert’s abilities and morals as a lawyer, as well as his devotion to his work. Werther’s rosy view of the world feels naively rather than maliciously selfish, constantly getting him into hopeless situations, but clearly because he likes the feeling of being there. Over the course of the film, Werther’s arc sees him realizing not simply that his obsession with Charlotte is unhealthy, but that his single-mindedness is a sign of his immaturity.
But in many ways, Werther is exactly what Charlotte needs. Having lost both parents at a young age, Charlotte is a surrogate mother for her six siblings, and works as an event planner for charitable organizations. She rarely gets time to herself, and when she does, she doesn’t really know what to do with it. Through Werther, Charlotte gets to experience a youthful romance she’s never had before. In her scenes alone with Werther, she’s every bit the temptress that he is the Casanova.
Pill does lend a reservation to Charlotte, but only around larger groups. Around friends, she’s conflicted about her new suitor. When Melanie calls their relationship an emotional affair, it prompts a major moment of introspection in Charlotte. But when Charlotte and Werther are alone, one could be forgiven for forgetting she’s engaged in the first place.
Werther is contemporary, but tongue-in-cheek about its source material. The film opens on a shot of Werther laying at the base of a Linden tree, wearing a suit seemingly stolen from 18th-century illustrations of Goethe’s original. In an early scene set to club music, Charlotte bemoans that she can’t dance to this music, she only knows how to waltz. When asked by his friend Paul if he would take his own life for love, Werther snaps that “this isn’t 18th century Germany.”
Werther is a fantastic debut for Lourenço, both as a writer, and as a visual storyteller. Lourenço captures a vibrant portrait of Toronto as a bright, beautiful city. During the day, Werther and Charlotte’s walks through parks feel right out of a period piece, while at night, the city is vibrant and arresting. Like Werther, Lourenço’s view of this story is rosy, lingering on beauty just a little longer than advisable. Though Werther ultimately contains a message of letting go, it’s nevertheless a movie that relishes in nostalgia.
Young Werther was seen during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Thank you to Route504 for the advanced screening.
