Auerhaus

Some films want to come across as particularly relaxed and go to great lengths to maintain this tone. Even tragic events are then given less focus than the irrelevance of dialog or things that happen around them. Auerhaus does exactly that and still looks like a hard piece of work, which is unfortunately due to the actors, who all act as if they are just about to finish drama school. This is particularly evident in the original language, where the dialog has the typical artificiality of a German TV film. Hardly anything sounds natural, everything is scripted and is supposed to be the language of a youth from 40 years ago. I was young myself back then and believe me, nobody spoke like that. I don't believe the director at all, because what we see here is incomprehensible from the outset, be it visiting times in closed psychiatric wards or the fact that young people just move into a house and their parents don't care. To me, it all seems like an assertion that ignores reality.

Hey don't blame me! The movie uses the song too - I reckon the title was chosen carefully - so no pun intended. If you don't know what I mean yet - Auerhaus is spelled like "our house" (now you only need to know a very famous song - which is in the middle of the street and so forth).

All that aside though (although as you can tell I do like a good pun - or two or three - as many as possible), this also is an indicator of ... well of people growing up - trying to free themselves from the shackles of their parents of sorts. Of course they are still kids - behaviour wise. It is not the easiest thing to shed certain things.

Being mature is not always an age thing of course. The acting is quite solid to say the least. If you like the theme here, you might find a lot to enjoy. Life ... maybe not the one you ever imagined for yourself. But one you can empathize with at least ...