Rumspringa - a film review

Rumspringa is a movie that I'm going to suggest you may want to watch despite its many flaws. Be forewarned. As a comedy it's dumb. Clumsy. Flops between hard to believe and virtually impossible to believe. 

If you're familiar with the Pennsylvania German Amish folk, those guys who ride around in horse-drawn buggies, live in isolated self-contained communities, and associate sin with using electricity and zippers, you may be familiar with the concept of "running around" - "Rumspringa" in the Southwest German dialect the Amish use to this day. It's a time given to young men in adolescence when the rules of order (die Ordnung) are purposefully relaxed so they can get a taste of the world outside among the "English," before they are baptized and initiated into their male role as head of the family. (Amish use "English" to refer to Americans outside the community the same way Mormons use "Gentiles.")

Most Amish kids who follow the practice (not all Amish communities do), I'm given to understand, don't stray too far. They may drive a car, maybe drink a beer, but if they are in a good relationship with their parents and the community, they are not likely to stray too far. 90%, I understand, stretch the boundaries because it's expected of them, and then return to the folk. 

And that's my first bone to pick with this movie. The writers and director start with a not very original thought - "What happens when a country bumpkin goes to the big city and falls in with a wild crowd?" - and push it to the limit. The lead character, an appealing young man of about 17 or 18 - his name is Jakob - is given a Bible by his father, who then puts him on a bus to the airport, where he flies to Berlin, allegedly to track down his ancestors. Yeah, right. Like their names are in the Berlin phone book, maybe?

Germans seem to have a hard time with comedy. Where the English go for irony and sarcasm and the French go for farce, too often the Germans end up with slapstick, which is the case here.  Jakob is an appealing freckle-faced kid but the constant wide-eyed, open-mouthed shocked expression gets tiresome early on. Naive can be charming, ignorance is less appealing.

Jakob falls in with Alf and Bo, two guys who take pity on him and let him move in with them. Alf is the cool one, everything Jakob is not, and the stage is set for the two to interact with each other and draw each other from their extremes. Jakob acquires sophistication, Alf acquires responsibility and a sense of self. Like I said, not an original plot line, but if it were done well, you wouldn't mind. At least I wouldn't. I'm a sucker for stories about people who come out smarter than they went in. Unfortunately, this film is slow to develop. It's full of clichés, has a plot driven largely by coincidence, and has little to no depth. The German kids are stereotypical party animals, the Amish are depicted as religiously constipated, and relationships are started and ended for reasons we are never given to understand.

It's a film to watch when you're tired of bad news and don't want too much of a mental challenge. At least there is some heart in it, and that's its saving grace. The friendship that develops between Jakob and Alf works.  And all's well that ends well.

Netflix streaming - just out April 29.

In German, with English subtitles.

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