Language is really my thing (2018)

Directed by: Barbara Bredero | 90 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Fockeline Ouwerkerk, Egbert Jan Weeber, Tarikh Janssen, Peter Faber, Annet Malherbe, Martijn Hillenius, Tina de Bruin, Ali Ben Horsting, Matijs Delena, Tomas Delena, Iliass Ojja, Lineke Rijxman, Huub Smit, Rick Paul van Mulligen

Modernisms, buzzwords, stop words and hip contractions; the Dutch language is constantly changing and not everyone is happy about that. Language purists abhor Anglicisms, words that suddenly take on a different meaning and trend expressions, but there are also people who think that our language is enriched by being creative with words, expressions and their meaning. Writer and comedian Paulien Cornelisse is fascinated by modern language, listened carefully, observed her surroundings and described her surprise and amazement at what she heard in a series of newspaper columns that were collected in the bestseller ‘Language is really my thing. ‘ from 2009. More than 500,000 copies were sold, unprecedented figures for a Dutch book. The follow-up, ‘And then something’ from 2013, also made the cash registers ring in the bookshops. As is often the case with bestsellers, the desire arose to put ‘Language is really my thing’ in film form. But how do you do that with a collection of collected NRC columns about the vagaries of the Dutch language? Screenwriter Tijs van Marle, mainly known for successful youth film series such as ‘Dummie de Mummie’ and ‘Mees Kees’, made an attempt, but apart from the title and the main character’s fascination with language, the film has nothing to do with Cornelisse’s bestseller. .

The film ‘Language is really my thing’ has become a standard Dutch romkom, as about six of them are released every year. Moreover, a film that limps too much on several thoughts and therefore comes across as messy and unfinished. Anne (charming role by Fockeline Ouwerkerk) is a woman in her thirties who works at the editorial office of a glossy women’s magazine. She is not very happy there; much rather she would quit her job to focus on a book on language. Because that is her greatest fascination; all around her she overhears conversations and marvels at certain statements and the way words are used. The only person who seems to understand her is her best friend and colleague Timo (Egbert Jan Weeber). Just at the point when Anne has finally gathered her soul to hand in her resignation, her editor-in-chief comes up with a special assignment; whether she wants to go out with the slippery but handsome photographer Rick (Tarikh Jansen) for a men’s magazine? There is even a joint candy trip to the sun in the offing. She can’t let that go! However, there is one problem; Anne’s father Werner (Peter Faber) is becoming increasingly forgetful and confused and her mother (Annet Malherbe) has treated herself to a relaxing three weeks in India. Her egocentric brother Jurgen (Martijn Hillenius) and sister (Tina de Bruin) are of no use to her at all, so the care for her father falls entirely on her clumsy, dutiful shoulders.

‘Language is really my thing’, directed by Barbara Bredero (‘Mees Kees’, 2012), could have – and should have – distinguished itself more from the standard Dutch romkom by doing more with language. Instead, the film restricts itself to sporadic language observations in the form of voice-overs by Ouwerkerk, which should really stimulate the viewer to think further about their own language use, but which remain somewhere in the void. The romantic element quickly takes over and it’s so predictable and uninspired that you really don’t need to be an experienced movie watcher to see where this is going. Then the bond between Anne and her father comes out better. In that storyline, the phenomenon of language has at least been played with in a nice way, where it should be all about in the end. Werner is losing more and more words because of his dementia. ‘Language is really my thing’ is therefore at its best in the small, natural-looking moments between Anne and her father. Peter Faber apparently plays these kinds of roles with playful ease and does not have to make an excessive effort to make Werner a sympathetic character. How different it is with Anne’s other family members, who are more occupied with themselves than with others and therefore become insufferable. In the case of mother Paula, this is perhaps still acceptable (as a carer she is probably involved enough in the care of her husband and deserves a break once in a while), but Anne’s brother and sister are of an intolerable level.

A romantic comedy must meet only a few requirements. Firstly, there must be a convincing (blossoming) romance, secondly, there must be some laughter. ‘Language is really my thing’ falls short on both fronts. The romance is not only dull and unbelievable (especially Ouwerkerk with Jansen), but also extremely predictable. The humor is nice here and there (the interviews that Anne conducts with ‘tough’ men such as a successful investor (Yannick van de Velde), a quasi-philosophical professional football player (Bilal Wahib) and a renowned chef (Tim Haars) remind us It’s a good chuckle, but there are also a lot of annoyances, especially about the one-dimensional characters.In addition, it’s a shame that so little is done with such an interesting source of inspiration (Cornelisse’s book).