"About a Girl" is a German film that was shown on very special occasions last year already, but was released to general audiences just a couple days ago in August 2015. Of course, it has nothing to do with the Hugh Grant film "About a Boy". The lead actress here is Jasna Fritzi Bauer and her niche seems to be playing characters that are considerably younger than she is, namely 26. In this film her, she plays a 15-year-old and I remember liking her performance in "Scherbenpark" from 2 years ago, where her character was also considerably under 20. Anyway, in recent years she has made her way into the most talented and most known actresses under 30 here in Germany. And I certainly liked her performance in this movie here. There is not a single scene where I felt she messed up and she carried this film nicely that I am sure hardly anybody could have played her role more convincingly. Good choice on casting her.
However, there were some worse choices in other areas. The writer and director is Mark Monheim and this is his first full feature movie after he made short films earlier in his career. Now I think he did fine with the directing part, but the script really wasn't a revelation. I will start with the good things though. I liked the way that Bauer's character was written for the most part and her psychiatrist was pretty interesting too with his mannerisms. Unfortunately, basically all family members of the main character were really uninteresting, most of all her grandmother, who was written so generic and uninspiring and we have seen characters like her dozens of times in the past already. The death was entirely predictable and the way she was a figure of respect and yet a friend to Bauer's character was occasionally pretty annoying to watch. The way Makatsch's character was written and especially the three men in her life wasn't much better. At least this one was saved in the end by her not going for the doctor, but staying with the teacher. Otherwise, this really could have been a fairly horrible plot. And finally, there were some quotes from dialogs that were not pleasant to watch (and listen to) on several occasions as well. One example would be when she calls the nerdy boy from her class her jackpot near the end. This was fairly cringeworthy and over-the-top, especially unrealistic for a 15-year-old girl.
There are parts that could have been cut entirely and the entire script should have been taken and improved on many occasions in my opinion. There are okay passages, but all in all the negative is more dominant. They certainly could have kept this film at under 90 minutes and nothing of value would have been lost if they had crossed out the right (or I should say wrong) passages. However, Monheim is still new to making feature films and maybe also the problem was his co-writer Martin Rehbock, who is not exactly experienced either. So i will be a bit generous with the rating. And after all, Jana Fritzi Bauer's performance makes this one still worth a watch. Thumbs up for her and I am certainly curious about her next projects.
However, there were some worse choices in other areas. The writer and director is Mark Monheim and this is his first full feature movie after he made short films earlier in his career. Now I think he did fine with the directing part, but the script really wasn't a revelation. I will start with the good things though. I liked the way that Bauer's character was written for the most part and her psychiatrist was pretty interesting too with his mannerisms. Unfortunately, basically all family members of the main character were really uninteresting, most of all her grandmother, who was written so generic and uninspiring and we have seen characters like her dozens of times in the past already. The death was entirely predictable and the way she was a figure of respect and yet a friend to Bauer's character was occasionally pretty annoying to watch. The way Makatsch's character was written and especially the three men in her life wasn't much better. At least this one was saved in the end by her not going for the doctor, but staying with the teacher. Otherwise, this really could have been a fairly horrible plot. And finally, there were some quotes from dialogs that were not pleasant to watch (and listen to) on several occasions as well. One example would be when she calls the nerdy boy from her class her jackpot near the end. This was fairly cringeworthy and over-the-top, especially unrealistic for a 15-year-old girl.
There are parts that could have been cut entirely and the entire script should have been taken and improved on many occasions in my opinion. There are okay passages, but all in all the negative is more dominant. They certainly could have kept this film at under 90 minutes and nothing of value would have been lost if they had crossed out the right (or I should say wrong) passages. However, Monheim is still new to making feature films and maybe also the problem was his co-writer Martin Rehbock, who is not exactly experienced either. So i will be a bit generous with the rating. And after all, Jana Fritzi Bauer's performance makes this one still worth a watch. Thumbs up for her and I am certainly curious about her next projects.