Strong and Moving!

Good concept, poorly executed.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Good-humoured and not too serious fiction about the young Goethe, tall and sometimes gawky Alexander Fehling, during his stint at a law court in the modest Hessian town of Wetzlar.There he falls for the charming, gifted and sexy Lotte Buff (Miriam Stein), but sees her marry for family reasons his rich and influential boss Kestner (Moritz Bleibtreu). He also suffers the loss of his best friend Wilhelm Jerusalem (Volker Bruch), who blows his brains out. Out of these traumas comes a passionate semi-autobiographical novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther", which overnight makes the still unsure young man a national hero. What Lotte says of the book, that it is not objectively true "Wahrheit" but creatively poetic "Dichtung", applies also to the film. The consummation of their love in a ruined abbey, ending up entwined naked in the mud, with subsequent colds that confine them to their separate beds, is filmed realistically but remains fantasy. More than a nod to Richardson's "Tom Jones" and, in the portrayal of the immortal artist as a young dog, to Shaffer's "Amadeus".

The premise of this movie is intriguing at best. Set in Eighteenth Century Germany, the costumes and scenery are succulent eye candy for the visual epicureans and history buffs alike. Impressively shot and beautifully acted, this movie has the potential to become a staple in any avid period piece fanatics movie library. Some historical inaccuracies aside, this German drama has the potential to be an impressive foreign film. "Goethe" could have easily become one of my favorite "feel good, need a good cry, want to escape from modern life" movie. Sadly, it will not be. The explicit and repetitive use of profanity and nudity (male and female) is unnecessary and spread throughout the movie. Listed as "Unrated", it should be given an "R" rating. A movie that could have been a real film gem was marred by the unnecessary filth added in. If you are somehow able to watch an edited version of this movie without all the junk thrown in, I would recommend it. Otherwise, it is a waste.

Playwright, poet and author, Johann Goethe is one of the most famous German writers. This lavish production is part biopic, part colourful historical drama and part romance, but it makes for an entertaining and bawdy romp along the same vein as Tom Jones, Shakespeare In Love, etc. The film mainly concentrates on the youthful Goethe's life before he successfully published his first novel, at the age of 22, which made him the toast of Europe. When we first meet Goethe (Alexander Fehling), he is an aspiring poet. But after several rejections from publishers, who feel that his work is uninspiring, Goethe follows his disapproving father's advice and heads to the small town of Wetzlar, where he gains employment as a law clerk working for the officious Ketsner (Moritz Bleibtreu). He shares a room with a fellow law student, the boisterous and socially uncouth Wilhelm (Volker Bruch). He also falls in love with the beautiful Charlotte (Miriam Stein). But Charlotte's father is struggling financially, and arranges for Charlotte to marry Kestner. Goethe and Kestner become rivals, which eventually leads to Goethe being imprisoned. His misadventures and the doomed romance provides the material for Goethe's first novel The Sorrows Of Young Werther. Fehling (who had a small role in Inglorious Basterds) brings a rakish charm, with, energy and charisma to his performance as the irreverent, hard drinking, 17th century slacker Goethe. Bleibtreu is suitably cold as the rather dull Kestner. Stein is feisty and sassy as Charlotte. Director Phillip Stozl (the grueling mountaineering drama North Face, etc) directs the material with a light touch. He makes great use of locations to enhance the film's atmosphere. The production design is excellent, and the film's setting reek of authenticity.

Even Goethe was young once (yes I know, some things seem completely ridiculous now don't they) and was not the genius we all came to know ... Wait, do we really know him? Actually I wouldn't claim to know him. So we know his work and may like that or not. Think it's great or not. But what do we know about the human behind that? Only way to make the movie more awkward would have been, to show him as a 2-year old (though that would be almost intriguing ... and I might even line up to watch that). As it is, we get to see him, as we have not seen him before. So the filmmakers have the freedom to show a human side on him. If any of this is based on anything in particular? I wouldn't be able to tell you.What I can tell you, is that this is very light entertainment. It also tells us, that even great persons are people too. If you can live with that and enjoy a little story that has no aim to please anything more than lightweight entertainment, than you can't do anything wrong by watching this