Giulias Verschwinden is the newest movie by Christoph Schaub, written by Martin Suter and starring Corinna Harfouch and Bruno Ganz.

Plot:
On the way to her fiftieth birthday party, Giulia [For some reason, Julia in the English version] (Corinna Harfouch), unhappy with becoming another year older, meets an interesting stranger (Bruno Ganz).
In the meantime, Leonie (Christine Schorn) celebrates her 80th birthday and tries to escape growing older by behaving like a teenage rebel.
In another meantime, Jessica (Elisa Schlott) who is an actual teenager tries to find a birthday present for her boyfriend. And by find, I mean steal.

Giulias Verschwinden is a nice comedy. Nothing too special but it has some good laughs and a fine cast. It’s no masterpiece but it’s entertaining.

The main focus of the script, as might be guessed from the title, is Giulia’s story, or better the story of her friends, gathering around a table in a restaurant, waiting for Giulia and discussing what it means to grow older. It’s also the strongest segment of the film, mostly for Sunnyi Melles, who turns up as the uninvited acquaintance who sticks around and provokes the other dinner guests.

The other performances were fine, too, but Sunnyi Melles really stood out with hers. Bruno Ganz was a little disappointing, though. He wasn’t bad, but I kinda expected more from him.

The writing was fine, though it was prone to have problems in two areas: 1. People would talk a little better and a little more beautiful than they’d do in real life and 2. the characters sometimes bordered a little on clichés. But here the script was saved by the actors who managed to wrangle depth and emotion from the most tired clichés (like the gay guy with the ex who died of Aids or the divorcees who are so preoccupied with fighting that they aren’t aware of their child [which in turn leads that child to stealing]).

The only thing I’m not sure about is the third story (about the teenage girl). I mean, it was a nice story but it didn’t seem to tie in with the other two stories. It was lacking the common theme, if you will.

Summarising: You could do worse than watch this movie, especially if you’re preoccupied with growing older.