Young Werther sees the joyful and carefree Werther (Douglas Booth) fall for Charlotte (Alison Pill) during a trip to Toronto.
After a night of dancing and getting to know each other on her birthday, he discovers she’s engaged to a successful lawyer named Albert (Patrick J. Adams). Werther doesn’t let this obstacle get in his way and resolves to win over Charlotte at any cost. If it sounds like the setup for many hackneyed romantic comedies, that’s because it is, but this film goes deeper than the surface-level premise.
Based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, writer-director José Lourenço’s Young Werther brings the classic romance tale to the modern age. While the setting changes, the theme doesn’t. This is still about the complexities of love and how it’s a messy affair for all parties. In summary, love hurts.
Mild spoilers for Young Werther follow.
The tagline for Young Werther reads: “Love is blind. It’s dumb, too,” and it’s an accurate assessment of the story. Werther can’t help but fall for Charlotte. He’s an impulsive character and she catches his eye, so he reacts on his emotions and decides that they must be together.
For Charlotte, the situation proves to be more complicated. Her fiancé, Albert, is a good man, but he works hard and isn’t present all the time. In turn, this leaves her in something of a comfortable lull. She craves excitement and adventure – all of which Werther offers her – but she has security with her fiancé. Albert recognizes Charlotte’s needs, but he also wants to do good in the world. Time is finite and he tries to do the best for everyone, hence he encourages Charlotte to hang out with Werther since he believes him to be the fun she wants in her life.
What makes matters worse is that Werther sees Albert as a decent guy and they begin to bond as well. See, Albert isn’t the typical rom-com evil boyfriend who must be vanquished because he’s a terrible human being; his only vice is his work-life balance, which is something a lot of people can relate to. Resultantly, Werther sees himself turning from the hero of his own story into Albert’s antagonist, since he selfishly tries to steal Charlotte away from a man who is kind and loving toward her.
But isn’t love selfish to begin with? After all, everyone always says you should fight for it and that the heart wants what the heart wants, right? Young Werther chooses to leave that answer up to the viewers as it presents a love triangle that’s guaranteed to break hearts.
Charlotte’s dilemma eats at her conscience as Alison Pill plays the character as a lost and wandering soul in Young Werther. Her life appears to be set with Albert, but there’s a sense that something is missing. Whether it’s the pre-wedding jitters or having too much that it’s never enough, Charlotte’s attraction to Werther grows as she sees him as the big what-if of her life. Pill’s Charlotte loses herself in this love daze, attempting to figure out who she really wants to be with.
Complementing Pill is the always-spectacular Douglas Booth, who effuses the unpredictability and spontaneity of Werther. He’s an eccentric writer with grand ideas, but he struggles to commit to any of them. He’s a free spirit and it’s easy to see how Charlotte is drawn to what he represents at this juncture in her life. At the same time, one has to wonder if his interest in her is genuine or only fleeting like with everything else. It’s a question that never feels answered until the end of the film.
Then there’s Patrick J. Adams’ Albert. He symbolizes what everyone wishes for in society: A privileged man who uses his standing for good. Unlike Werther, he takes life seriously and acts purposely. He puts in the effort at his own personal cost, including time with Charlotte and for himself. However, there’s no disputing what’s in his heart: His love for his fiancée and making a better world for her. Albert’s greatest weakness, though, is that he doesn’t fight as hard as Werther does for Charlotte’s affection. This doesn’t make him an unworthy suitor – only a complacent partner. Again, a relatable concept.
It would have been all too easy for José Lourenço to turn Young Werther into something like P.J. Hogan’s My Best Friend’s Wedding since there are many similarities between the movies. However, the filmmaker chooses to embrace the irrationality of love and venture down that winding path instead. Each character crosses lines, embodying the age-old adage: All is fair in love and war.
Lourenço doesn’t speak Wes Anderson’s visual language fluently, but the director applies the mood to the narrative surroundings because Young Werther is a tragic romance, but there’s a witty melancholy nature to it. It’s a story about a boy falling in love with a girl and his misguided efforts to gain her affection. Yes, it’s funny to watch the lengths that Werther goes to, but it’s equally sad to witness the fallout, because anyone who has ever been in this type of situation knows that it never turns out well for the people involved.
All in all, Young Werther establishes itself as a smart rom-com that stays grounded in realism rather than Hollywood-esque portrayals of love and relationships. It might not be a beat-by-beat adaptation of The Sorrows of Young Werther, but it captures both the highs and lows of matters of the heart.
