FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS: The German title for this not-quite-teen movie translates in English as 'Groupies don’t stay for Breakfast.' There is the promise of sex and bad behaviour in that one liner – and perhaps a keyhole peak into the blaze-bright/burn-out-quick rock 'n’ roll lifestyle? Well, no. There’s nothing remotely sleazy, seedy, or pessimistic about this sunny, and modest film which seems to have been made in the spirit of John Hughes’ romantic urban fairytales with their too good to be true plots and blinding optimism. A Disney Deutschland film about a rock star that prefers the girl next door to a one night stand, and a nice girl who has no time for the fast lane of glamour, it’s so relentlessly upbeat that it makes Sixteen Candles look like Hamlet. Movies that are this good natured and optimistic are a risky proposition; watching people do the right thing in the face of tough emotional choices seems to require a certain suspension of disbelief but director Marc Rothemund (Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, 2005) strikes a tone here that’s at once earthy, and larger than life.
A big part of its charm is a plot that’s full of Hollywood 1930s-style screwball comedy devices that keep the action alive and moving. Screenwriters Kristina Magdalena Henn and Lea Schmidbauer map out a scheme for the couple at the centre of the story that incorporates the classic tropes of the romantic genre that conspire against a happy ending: misunderstandings, masquerades, and lots of confusion over identity, class and cultural attitudes.
The plot hinges on a ticklish irony: Lila, played by the incredibly gorgeous but convincingly ordinary Anna Fischer, has returned to Berlin after a year in the US on an exchange program. She meets Chriz (Kostja Ullmann) as a regular guy; in fact he’s the handsome but wholesome front man for the hugely popular rock act Berlin Mitte, whose fan base seems to consist solely of very young teenage girls. Lila has no idea about Chriz’s real life style or the fact that he has signed a contract that has him committed to remaining single. On meeting Lila Chriz is impressed by the fact that finally someone likes him for who he is as a person (as opposed to who he is as a cultural icon). Lila wants a relationship, not a quick fling. Meanwhile, her little sister Luzy (Amber Bongard) complicates the action and threatens the future of the budding romance when she lets slip to her pals that her sister is dating their idol"¦The power of social networking and its capacity to fabricate, distort, explode and contort any relationship and situation sends the plot into overdrive. Before you could stroke 'delete’ the paparazzi are on the case; Chriz feels betrayed and Lila feels dismayed and disillusioned.
How this resolves itself into the inevitable and perfectly satisfying (and I gotta admit uplifting) happy ending is a matter of not plot mechanics but character. Like I said, this is a nice film and that’s a compliment for the best reason there is. When the characters here act in an honourable and decent way you can believe it because we see that they too well know the true cost of hurting someone.
