Review of The Awakening of Spring

I was very excited when I discovered there was a film adaption of Frank Wedekind's brilliant play. I am very familiar with the show; I saw the musical on Broadway and have played the role of Wendla Bergmann before. So I was finally able to get a hold of this film and watch it. Within five minutes, I was frankly bored. The film takes a solid ten minutes to finally become interesting, and while they use close dialect from the actual play, they definitely changed many things. The acting style was very modern and almost Americanized, while the setting is supposed to be 1891 Germany. The hayloft scene itself was completely off point (she allows what happens to happen, even encourages it. There is no struggle and it's done very calmly and low-key.). In addition, if I wasn't so familiar with the show, due to line changes and inaudible speaking, I wouldn't have even known that Wendla was pregnant. In fact, I don't think it's even addressed explicitly. The characters Ina and the Masked Man were completely cut out. And to agree with most everyone who has reviewed this already, that flutist was not only annoying, but ripped me out of the story every time the shot panned over to him.

That's not to say the film was all bad. The minimalistic style of set was very enjoyable to watch. As an actor that has traveled in traveling troops, I respect productions that can make due with very little, and the actors pulled it off gracefully. In addition, with the exception of the actress who played Anne (or known in the play as Wendla), the acting was fairly well done.

If you don't know the story of Spring Awakening, do not watch this. If you do know the story, you may find it enjoyable, depending on how faithful you are to the original story/text. All in all, not a complete waste of time, but definitely did not live up to expectations.