Real Life (2008)

Directed by: Robert Jan Westdijk | 90 minutes | drama, comedy | Actors: Sallie Harmsen, Ramsey Nasr, Loek Peters, Mike Lebanon, Loes Haverkort, Ergun Simsek, Zoe Stork, Oren Schrijver

Director Robert Jan Westdijk (1964) is best known for his strong debut film ‘Zusje’, for which he was directly awarded a Golden Calf in 1995. Since 2003’s ‘Phileine says sorry’, which was awarded four Golden Calves, we have had to wait five years for ‘Real life’. That was well worth the wait. The movie ‘Real Life’ is a movie within a movie. So we are not only looking at the feature film on the silver screen, but at the same time at a film that is made as part of the film story. That seems confusing at first, but it immediately becomes clear when we see over time that everything we saw up to that point only concerns the shots on a film set. At the same time, that is one of the enormous strengths of this film. We are constantly switching between real life and the movie ‘Real Life’ and are constantly seduced and misled. Are we watching the movie itself now or is it another scene from the movie Martin is making? The clever thing is that the film story has a kind of built-in TomTom that always takes us by the hand, removes the confusion and at the same time provides an often generous smile.

The young director Martin (Ramsey Nasr) is making a feature film entitled ‘Real life’. The female lead is played by his girlfriend Simone (Sallie Harmsen). He himself takes the male lead of Milan (of course also Ramsey Nasr). The screenplay of the film written by Martin is about the young man Milan who subjects his girlfriend, also called Simone ‘coincidentally’, to a love test. He’s not quite sure how she feels about him.

As part of that test, she has an affair with the assistant cook of an eatery she frequents. According to the screenplay by director Martin, at the end of the film she will have to choose between her old and her new love. It all goes completely different than Martin had envisioned in his screenplay. Fedja, the assistant cook in Martin’s film, is put aside after the first shots. Good advice is expensive, Martin is looking for a replacement within his own film crew. That will of course have major consequences. Substitute Dirk (Loek Peters) has no acting experience, but turns out to be a perfect choice. His own personality fits seamlessly with the character he’s supposed to be playing, but his problem is that he completely shuts down when he’s got to play intimate scenes with Simone. Still, Martin’s gamble pays off. In all his open-mindedness and with natural playing, Dirk brings exactly what Martin had wanted to express with his film script. Dirk is increasingly giving his own interpretation to his role. Dirk’s role concept becomes so authentic and he immerses himself in the story so much that Dirk and Simone also fall in love in real life…. That is becoming increasingly problematic for Martin. How is this all supposed to end?

Does that all sound a bit corny or forced? Let go of that wrong thought immediately, because the film is very cleverly put together and has many sublime and subtle jokes and nice finds that keep us on our toes. It is also amusing how, through bloopers and the forced stopping of recordings of Martin’s film, we once again realize that we as spectators have once again been misled.

Sallie Harmsen has her leading role in ‘Real life’. She plays the stars of heaven and presents herself with this acting performance as an up-and-coming young talent on the way to …..? We hope to see a lot more from her. Ramsey Nasr and Loek Peters are also doing very well, as are the rest of the cast. Director Westdijk wrote the screenplay himself. The way in which the director regularly misleads you, but also subtly takes you by the hand, is clever and never comes across as artificial. This tasty tragicomedy is much more than the usual light-hearted comedy that you can watch with half an eye. Ingenious screenplay and cleverly developed, strong editing, good acting. Attention is required at and for this absolute must.