The Lovers (2019)

Directed by: Anna van der Heide | 96 minutes | drama | Actors: Jeroen Krabbé, Hadewych Minis, Theo Maassen, Beppie Melissen, Sanne Samina Hanssen, Rebecca de Nooijer, Jelka van Houten, Guy Clemens, Linde van der Storm, Aiko Beemsterboer, Bas Keizer

Who has never wanted to put their family behind the wallpaper? This universal feeling is the theme of the film ‘The Lovers’ by Anna van der Heide. Family: you can’t live without them, no matter how much you want to.

‘The Lovers’ is about the Lover family, consisting of parents Jan and Lea and children Jonathan, Sam, Kasper and Maria (all aged between 34 and 42). Father Jan has early Alzheimer’s and only told his children about it after a while. This puts pressure on family relationships and makes everyone face their own unresolved problems. The film is therefore not so much a story about illness but more about family.

The strongest point of ‘The Lovers’ is the great cast, including Jeroen Krabbé, Theo Maassen and Hadewych Minis. Piece by piece, all cast members create believable characters with recognizable feelings. Krabbé is the strict father who wants the best for his children and who likes to be in control. He deliberately did not inform his children immediately about his illness. In addition, Krabbé makes Jan a man who is also still searching for what exactly the disease will bring, which naturally leads to anger and incomprehension. Maassen is the eldest son; an introverted sensitive surgeon. He wants to help his father but never really gets close enough. And so all characters are strong, although it would take too long to name them all.

And that is immediately a point of criticism of the film: there are too many Lovers. There are six storylines (seven if you include Laura by marriage) and that’s actually too many to really get to the core of a character. Now director Anna van der Heide (‘Master Frog’) is just scratching the surface, while the characters and the film deserve more depth. The viewer develops sympathy for the characters and wants to know and feel more. Now it feels too quickly like “And then everything was (almost) good again”. That is a shame, especially considering that the film is not very long at 96 minutes. Perhaps an extra half hour could have provided a little more depth.

The criticism above is really only a result of the fact that the game is so good and the themes in the story are so recognizable. In the best families the underlying problems come to light as soon as the pressure is on, and ‘De Lief950’ is no different. Because everything is now passing by at high speed, the end feels a bit sweet, despite of course that a lot has not yet been solved. But ‘The Lovers’ is a recognizable story with fantastic actors and a must for anyone who has a family.