April, May and June (2019)

Directed by: Will Koopman | 118 minutes | drama, comedy | Actors: Linda de Mol, Tjitske Reidinga, Elise Schaap, Bas Hoeflaak, Olga Zuiderhoek, Patrick Duffy, Peter Bolhuis, Gijs Scholten van Asschat, Mark Rietman, Dragan Bakema, Thomas Jansen, July Janssen, Robert Nederlof, Lilou Zoey Peetoom, Frédérique Welie , Ali Ben Horsting, Marlon Matla,

autism. If you’re not dealing with it yourself, it’s hard to describe what it’s like to have an autistic spectrum disorder. It’s better to show it then, said filmmaker Monique Nolte. That is why she made two documentaries about Kees Momma, who writes books about his condition. In 1997 there was ‘Trainman’, in which Momma shows how he survives with the help of his mother in the threatening outside world. The sequel ‘Het beste voor Kees’ (2014) is about the struggle of his now elderly parents to offer their son a future perspective. That film in particular caused a lot of stir on social media. Linda de Mol also saw Nolte’s documentary and was inspired by Kees’ story. The versatile De Mol wanted to make a film about sisters, because she herself grew up with only one brother, but was still looking for the right approach. The sisters thus got an autistic brother, for whom a solution must be found now that their mother is dying. She enlisted a few old acquaintances (director Will Koopman and screenwriter Frank Houtappels, with whom she co-created the successful TV series ‘Gooische Vrouwen’ and ‘Familie Kruys’ – and actors with whom she often worked; Tjitske Reidinga , Elise Schaap) and the tragicomedy ‘April, May and June’ (2019) was born.

The three (half) sisters April (Linda de Mol), May (Elise Schaap) and June (Tjitske Reidinga) each have their own busy lives. April has lived in the United States for years, where she built a career as a soap star, although the roles are no longer up for grabs as she gets older (her character in a hospital series has been in a coma for several months). Moreover, the man with whom she has been together for 25 years has hooked up with her very young ‘vitamin coach’. Middle sister June is a pure perfectionist who puts her family above all else, even if she trots through it enormously. She believes that one son almost dies if he ingests gluten, the other applies for a criminal record and lets her daughter, who was adopted from China, sleep between her and her husband Mark (Ali Ben Horsting) every night, which is of course disastrous. for their sex life. May is in her mid-thirties but still lives a riotous student life. She hooks up with married men (and lets herself be hidden in wardrobes when the wife comes home unexpectedly…) and doesn’t want to realize that her modeling career has been behind her for a while. The three women are invited one day by their mother Mies (Olga Zuiderhoek) because she has an important announcement to make: she is seriously ill and because she does not feel like the physical deterioration that awaits her, she wants to go on her next visit. birthday euthanasia. As if that announcement wasn’t intense enough, she wants to know from her daughters who will take care of her autistic son Jan (Bas Hoeflaak). But April, May and June are so preoccupied with themselves that they’ve barely got to know their younger brother, let alone how to take care of him.

The worries in the family seem a bit artificial: mother and especially daughters have a lot on their plate. Love dramas, health troubles, working conditions, family hassles; it just doesn’t stop. The sisters demand a lot of attention, but actually their experiences are not that interesting. It all comes at the expense of mother Mies, who is not only played by the always fantastic Olga Zuiderhoek, but who has also led a fascinating life. She had four children with four different men, lived in the US and France, was with a man who later wanted to be a woman and with a famous American actor and had a one-night stand with a nineteen-year-old boy when she was 40. . The sisters go in search of the latter, Jan’s father. Because Mies would like to have all the men in her life with her one more time. Why Mies is being pushed aside in favor of her daughters is a mystery. In addition to Zuiderhoek, Hoeflaak is also a bright spot: how convincingly he plays his role! The compulsive holding on to patterns, the outbursts of anger when things don’t go the way he used to, the problems he experiences when showing affection; Hoeflaak manages to fill in a role that could easily have been caricatured. In the roles of the fathers we see experienced actors such as Peter Bolhuis, Gijs Scholten van Asschat, Mark Rietman and the American Patrick Duffy, who we still know from ‘Dallas’ and who allegedly mainly signed for this role because he is a fervent supporter. for euthanasia and always wanted to make a film about it. His contribution is marginal though, so his presence doesn’t really add much to the film.

‘April, May and June’ focuses too much on the sisters with their tiring and sometimes downright farcical situations that we almost forget who it is really about; mother Mies and son Jan. It is only at the very end that we return to the heart of the matter and it is only from that point that we are actually touched by what we see. That emotional and moving scene, almost at the end, underlines what kind of movie this could have been if the sisters had stepped back and made way for their mother and brother. Missed opportunity!