Rosie aka A Man, His Lover and His Mother
Director: Marcel Gisler
Writer: Marcel Gisler, Rudolf Nadler
Cast: Sibylle Brunner, Fabian Krüger, Judith Hofmann, Sebastian Ledesma
Part of: identities Festival
Seen on: 12.6.2015

Plot:
Rosie Meran (Sibylle Brunner) doesn’t necessarily lead a healthy life: she drinks too much, she smokes and she doesn’t stop even after a stroke. She also refuses any kind of help, particularly from her daughter Sophie (Judith Hofmann) with whom she fights more than anything else. Said stroke does bring her son Lorenz (Fabian Krüger) back from Berlin to his Swiss hometown. Lorenz is an author, writing mostly autobiographically inspired novels about being gay, but currently stuck in a writer’s block. Sophie is only too glad to have him take his share of the burden that their mother is to her, while Lorenz, who so far has avoided all kinds of commitments as much as he can, is doubtful how much of a help he can actually be.

Rosie has great characters in a complex web of relationships and a rather black sense of humor – which are some of my favorite things when it comes to films. That said, it does have weaknesses as well, even if the strengths outweigh them.

Rosie is mostly about Rosie herself and Lorenz, two characters that are as much unlikeable as they are likeable. Rosie’s determination to live her own life and her no-nonsense attitude are contrasted with her drinking, smoking and biting humor that is sometimes honestly funny and sometimes just plain hurtful. Lorenz is vain, narcisstic and masks his immaturity as world-weariness. But he is honest and he obviously worries about his family and tries to help. Sophie and Mario (Sebastian Ledesma) get off more easily – although both their willingness to put other people first, to the point of ignoring their own needs is not exactly flattering either.

So you have these characters who crash into each other and rub against each other and they all grow through these encounters, some more, some less. And even if you don’t start out liking them, by the end you are certainly connected with them. In particular the Meran family – full of issues and refreshingly, Lorenz’ homosexuality is never one of them. [Although I was wondering later whether Lorenz’ discovery of homosexuality in the family suggests a genetic reason for homosexuality and whether I think that’s a good idea.]

Sibylle Brunner’s performance in particular shapes the film into what it is, although Rosie is one more entry in an increasingly tropy line of sassy old ladies who say exactly what’s on their minds all the time. But since she’s more than problematic with her sass, that kind of outspokenness isn’t romanticized at least.

Despite these many good qualities and a trio of good actors (Fabian Krüger, Sebastian Ledesma and Judith Hofmann) [who I definitely wouldn’t kick out of my bed (alone or in any combination)], Rosie does drag every once in a while. In particular the scenes where we see Lorenz driving from Berlin to Switzerland it almost felt like they were shown to us in real time. They could and should have been trimmed considerably.

But those moments were the film stumbles are rare enough that it is still easy to enjoy Rosie. Both film and character.

Summarizing: good.