There is nothing original about you

Oslo, 31. august, NO, 2011

I have got a problem with drugs in films. It has become commonplace, especially in “indie” or “alternative” (or, indeed austrian) movies, to use them to characterize your protagonist. 99% of the times, taking drugs in films has got nothing whatsoever to do with the story, it’s just a way to say “yeah, she/he is really THAT messed up!”. You are “cool” and “realistic” and “edgy” if you show someone snorting a line of cocaine, you don’t have to explain it, it doesn’t have to be consistent with the rest of the character’s personality, it explains itself and much more than that. A handy plot device you don’t have to take seriously.
Needless to say that this film actually does take the issue seriously, otherwise why would I write this long introduction?

But the film is not really about drug addiction, at least not for me. It is about finding a way to live your life or rather failing to do so. Everyone in this film is somehow lost in his or her own idea of what life should be like. Some characters are still fighting, desperately clinging to ideals they held when they were younger, some have given up and just accepted that they can’t change anything about their lives. It’s a rather bleak and unwelcoming world into which Anders, the protagonist, returns after spending several months at an institution for recovering drug addicts. Even his closest friends are too busy keeping up with their own expectations of their lives, to realise how much Anders could need their help right now. “Don’t do anything stupid. You’d fuck me up so bad.”, his best friend says to Anders, after he has just told him that he is thinking about killing himself.

There is one particularly powerful scene: Anders sits in a café, listening to the conversations of people at the other tables. After he has listened to a couple of people talking about their problems, his attention shifts towards two students who read out a list of things that are guaranteed to make you happy. The kind of list you get on facebook ever so often, containing cliché things like planting a tree, swimming with dolphins and winning a lot of money. But listening to the list does not just make you thing about how ridiculous these things are, it makes you question our own plans for your life. It exposes how much of our lives is determined by expectations we just blindly copy from others.

If you don’t like films that make you sad or pensive, you should probably not watch this one but you would miss a really thoughtful and well made film. And had it not been for About Chocolate Parfaits, I would have probably never seen it. So go and read her review of this film, it’s actually a lot better mine. So why didn’t I just post the link without all of these unnecessary words around it, I hear you ask? Well, I don’t know.