“I Was Home, But…” – Movie Review

This week at Lincoln Center, I attended a sneak preview of the new German drama by Angela Schanelec, “I Was Home, But …”

Synopsis

A single mother struggles to raise her children alone while moving on with her life.

Story

Two years after her husband’s death, Astrid (Maren Eggert) is struggling to raise her teenage son and young daughter all by herself.  The stress has gotten so bad for her that even some of the more mundane things in life become increasingly challenging.  She’s having a hard time holding it all together for herself and for the kids.  Still, Astrid tries to plod along, even attempting to finally find a new romantic interest in her life.  But friends and co-workers are soon to grow tired of her moods and she finds herself increasingly isolated.

Meanwhile, her son is having problems of his own.  After disappearing for a few days, he finally returns home, but by now is quite ill.  Astrid takes him to the doctor; following an examination and some tests, it is determined that the boy has sepsis and he will require surgery in order to amputate his toe.  In addition, his teachers are debating whether or not to have him expelled and Astrid is forced to defend his right to stay in school.  All the while, Astrid’s daughter is receiving the brunt of her anger as Astrid’s frustrations are getting the best of her.

Astrid sees an advertisement about a used bicycle that is for sale by the owner for 80 euros.  She meets him to discuss the bike and takes it for a test ride and agrees to make the purchase.  After paying to replace the seat, she uses the bicycle to ride all about town but soon thereafter finds the bike to be defective.  Astrid returns the bicycle to its previous owner and demands her money back; instead, he counters by offering to fix the bike himself.  Concerned that she will have to keep coming back every so often to get it repaired, she relents and insists on getting the 80 euros. 

Review

If it could be possible for a movie to be characterized as schizophrenic, then that would be an apt diagnosis for “I Was Home, But … “.  As a matter of fact, one might want to toss in a side of Attention Deficit Disorder just for good measure.  The Synopsis of this review was hard to write because it’s a bit of a challenge to make head or tail out of what’s going on here; as a result, the Synopsis above was basically something of an amalgam of various other descriptions that have been published online.  That said, make of it what you will. 

Beware when someone describes a movie as being “elliptical”; it’s a sure sign that there’s plenty of trouble ahead – at least from the standpoint of how it will be experienced by an average viewer.  While it may be true that there is a certain smug and pretentious group that would laud such a film with cringe-worthy platitudes, such pseudointellectuals merely want to make the hoi polloi feel culturally inferior. As an example, Schanelec won Best Director at The Berlin International Film Festival for “I Was Home, But …”.  Also, if you haven’t done so already, check the motion picture’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Following the screening, there was an interview with the director, who also wrote the screenplay (such as it is).  To be quite blunt, Schanelec appeared to have trouble answering some specific and reasonable questions from the audience, such as one about the Foley work that was clearly done on the movie.  At first, it appeared that she was uncomfortable speaking in English, but then she would speak rather eloquently about her past as an actress.  So, it’s difficult to understand why some softball questions weren’t given the courtesy of a response.