Lucy (2006) Reviews

• The struggles of a teenage mother on the way to adulthood...

  nematode-12009-06-24

  This slice of life film is about the struggles of a teenage girl named Maggie to reach some kind of equilibrium in her life is both beautiful and thoughtful. It follows Maggie's progress through the course of perhaps several weeks of her teenage existence, desperately trying to take care of her baby Lucy, balance her relationship with her mother, while trying attain some sort of normal teenage/adult social life. The real star of this film is Kim Schnitzer, who plays her role as Maggie so naturally that you fall effortlessly into the reality of her character. She is the central focus of the film and camera, and she is well up to the role, as well as Gordon Schmidt who plays her boyfriend equally naturally. The sparse dialogue is very realistic, there is no witty impossibly perfect dialogue nor are there any special effects, just Maggie left to make her own mistakes, missteps, and misjudgments. The kind that are typical of a real girl in her situation, and not some Hollywood scriptwriter's approximation of what might be imagined as the challenges of a teenager. It is through the choices Maggie makes and her struggles that the real strength of her character and desperation are revealed. I highly recommend watching this if you enjoy slice of life films. People used to fast paced action films will complain that it is too slow moving, but if you can sit back and let the story unfold like real life does, then you will find the heart of this movie and be moved by it. Director Henner Winckler overcomes what must have amounted to a modest budget by using completely natural settings and by keeping the camera firmly focused on the highly expressive face of Kim Schnitzer. I give this film 10 of 10 in this genre of film.

• Lucy

  J_J_Gittes2011-01-18

  Yet another of the newer German films that try to depict current everyday reality through the use of amateur actors and a seemingly "under-dramatized" approach to the narrative structure. In "Lucy", the second feature-length film by Henner Winckler, we are presented with an extract from the life of a few German adolescents living in Berlin, centering around 17 year old Maggy and her daughter Lucy that gave the film its title. Maggy is a disoriented youth torn between her wish for a steady relationship and taking responsibility for her own life, and her desire to be just an ordinary teenager, going out with her friends and enjoying life without the burden of being a mother. Strong performances, and a presentation that tries to avoid all the cliché's we are usually offered, make for a difficult viewing that doesn't fall prey to a simplification or explanation of the characters, posing questions at the viewer he must answer himself. It is also noteworthy that Winckler avoids a bleak vision of teenage life, but lets all characters keep their dignity and also their ambiguities, which aren't resolved.