The Elementary Particles (2006)

Wonderfully offbeat film!

Charming and brutal

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

"In the end, there's only death." If you do not bother to read books, this is a naked centerfold of the author's fantasies and shortcomings. Michel Houellebecq's novel shine in new elements. Unusually gifted screenwriter and director, this Oskar Roehler. His innovated remake of "Jud Süss" is well worth two hours of your life. In this film you find an inflamed brilliant ensemble. Try to match this gang. Martina, Nina & Franka is almost too god to be true. And you get all the essential keys to understanding the persona of Houellebecq. Plus an overdose of sadness and grief.

"Elementarteilchen" is a German film from almost 10 years ago and it runs for almost two hours. I will not mention all the cast members here, but this is really impressive. So many big name actors from Germany in here. I cannot think of another film in recent years that had equally many. Oskar Roehler, one of Germany's more known filmmakers these days, directed this film and also adapted Michel Houellebecq's novel for it. Probably his most famous film. Moritz Bleibtreu and Christian Ulmen play the main characters here, two brothers with very damaged relationships to woman and the reason may be their childhood and upbringing. This film touches some taboos, such as sexual relationships between teachers and students or even with your parents, but both is not elaborated too much into detail, so you can watch this without really having to puke. Bleibtreu did a fine job and deserved the awards attention he got for this. I am not really a great fan of his, so my perception of his strong performances is even more telling. It may be his finest character work. Ulmen, on the other hand I am not too big on here. It seems to me that he usually playing very similar characters and he found his niche. I would love to see him in a more daring portrayal, but he usually goes with nerdy intelligent guys with a touch of awkwardness. Still, it's a good contrast to Bleibtreu's character. Both brothers are on a journey to finding real love and a lasting relationship. Both manage in the end, but they have to pay a huge price as both their significant others turn out physically damaged and emotionally they probably are as well. "Elementarteilchen" is probably among the best German films from 2006 and I recommend it.

Elementary particles starts out as a quest for existence and what this word really means. Two brothers (half-brothers to be precise) realize their lives are not what kids dream about however much they seem to fit in the „mechanism". One is having doubts about his devotion to chase his scientific pioneering while the other does not seem to find comfort in teaching literature any more while being constantly turned down by publishers and neglected by his wife. They both have to reach back to their roots to be able to find out where to go from here, though Bruno (Moritz Bleibtrau) does so amidst rather compulsive circumstances, in a clinic he ends up in. They have not been given much of a head-start in life with their capricious, self-indulgent, impulsive and utterly careless hippie mother who left them both with their troubled and lonesome adolescence. Life has taken no mercy either – that is not the nature of things. Michael (Christian Ulmen) however, finds some inspiration to carry on in the shape of an old, more-than-friend girl pal, while Bruno has to rethink and reestablish his everyday needs and desires. He is living his second childhood – a time without constraints but full of uncertainty and odd, unbalanced characters – trying to escape his feeling of being redundant. Oscar Roehler's stark and thick drama seems a little exaggerating, a bit too much, nevertheless depicts life as it is: after stripped from all the fake Christmas wrappers, often desperate, pitiful at most times and forgiving only every once in a while.

Two half brothers, Michael and Bruno, abandoned as children by their hippie mother, struggle to form loving relationships. Michael remained faithful to his childhood first love, one he could never act on out of a mixture of cowardice and fear of abandonment. His half-brother whose past is so outlandish the character has no idea how to deal with himself other than walking into a psychiatric ward. Two brothers are left to their own devices, but neither is really strong enough to bear the weight.It is mostly Bruno's tale, rather than the virginal innocence and weakness of Michael, that dominate this film. The level of ridicule of Bruno's life exceeds most other characters in other films, but none the less brought to you somewhat convincingly by actor Moritz Bleibtreu, although it is hard not to laugh at the absurdity of the events we are supposed to believe. At some point we reach Volaire's 'Candide'-point, where you just wonder what other proof will be brought on stage to illustrate that life is a slow-moving catastrophe. My favorite, however, did not come from Bruno but from the disastrous life of the first love of his brother Michael. Her first (post-prom) relationship left her after two years to join a satanic sect and ended up mutilating and killing people (!?). The movie is a sequence of such tales leaving the psychologically unstable Bruno under -badly needed- medical care, and Michael finding love with his barren childhood sweetheart, excluding the possibility of an improved next generation.Since the movie is based on Houellebecqs' book, there is some obligation to take it seriously, further promoted by the ending of the film which adds some textual fast-forward into the rest of the characters lives suggesting it is a true story. The complete absurdity of the 'how can we make it worse' attitude which dominates, makes interpretations equally absurd, but we will hand it over none the less: A society which deviates from the loving nuclear family renders people anchor-less, free floating elements in the winds of their time, ever- processing the wounds left behind from their stagnated psychological development. Whether or not you are willing to sit through the movie for this is up to you, but be reassured that it is technically well made and acted. Quite an accomplishment considering the script.