Jonathan

This is about the need to understand the other and the mistakes that we make. Sacrifices are made in life and they might not be understood and, often, not accepted. But, at the end, we are all human and need to learn to forgive, even ourselves.

Slow moving, beautiful and touching. It may not be for everyone, but I enjoyed this film.

And here's another movie that comes from Germany and looks like a TV production. I admit that I'm already annoyed when it's thematically about freedom and you immediately see a bird circling in the sky. The obligatory cheap guitar music is missing because there was no money for an orchestra. André Hennicke plays a sick man, the father of Jonathan (Jannis Niewöhner). The two have a complicated relationship, which is immediately clear. Then Anka appears, a young nurse who has everything that such women don't actually have. But of course, she is an actress and looks like one - as do all the actors in this movie. Yes, I'm complaining about more realism and less film school here, because everything reeks of formalism and is also quite homophobic in its basic mood, despite being from 2016. The pace is tiring and the landscape shots don't interest me at all. If I want to watch flies fly, I open the window. Jannis Niewöhner hasn't done his career any favors here and certainly won't really point to his role as the highlight of his career.

What a heartbreaking, soul-stirring and touching masterpiece. This movie drove me to tears, literally, It's a roller coaster of feelings. a German dramatic perfection about love, closure, family secrets and forgiveness and the most beautiful thing about it is its realism, this is not your typical drama. It starts with the story of a boy living and taking care of his dying dad on their farm with his absently present aunt, yet the situation can't but escalate as an old friend comes in and the shadows of the past start to surface and truths get told. We get through the agonizing lives of this characters living at what seemed like a simple life at first, a life that's mostly built on lies causing big wounds for everyone especially Jonathan the protagonist, whom I admire a lot because, as long as these heavy secrets unfold he stood and was always there for his father, shut I won't say more I don't want to spoil the story. This movie is a mosaic about family, forgiveness, and love and if there's one thing you will learn it's that family can overcome everything and it's never too late to make things right and find love even on the bed of death plus the end is very gratifying and warming so prepare the tissues.

There was a gay themed American movie dealing with terminal cancer, but in that movie, there wasn't the overwhelming sadness of dealing with the death of a loved one. Instead, death was portrayed as natural and almost besides the point. Here the audience is slammed repeatedly with the dire consequences of being mortal and getting terminal skin cancer. The gay subplot and dark family secrets become almost irrelevant. The scene where the central, dying character had one final * with his long absent partner in a hospital bed seemed totally contrived and unreal. The writer seemed to be saying that sex and love are the same. To equate those two subjects close to the moment of agonizing death seemed vulgar. Acting and production values were good; hence the 6 rating.

I read the other reviews before watching the film. It was a bit slow, but it was touching. The relationship between the father and son was heartbreaking. My father died before I could get a chance to REALLY know him. This movie took me there. The countryside was gorgeous and well-shot. I only wish there was more extrapolation concerning the aunt. A decent film though.

"Jonathan" is a German German-language movie from 2016 that runs for 100 minutes. It is the first full feature film work by Polish short film and television series director Piotr J. Lewandowski. And he is also one of the three co-writers here. The cast includes several actors that German film buffs will immediately recognize, at least the faces, maybe even the names, like Niewöhner (playing the title character), Hennicke, Koschitz, Auer and Sarbacher. This is the story of a young man whose father is slowly dying from cancer. And while this happens, we, as well as the protagonist, find out that his dad's last wish is apparently to be reunited with a former sweetheart. Only problem is that the latter is a man. This causes some major struggles of course to everybody when it comes to dealing with this new situation, especially in terms of Auer's character. Back to Niewöhner: His character himself has a relatively unlikely love relationship going on for himself that may be entirely different in essence compared to his dad's, but eventually there are similarities because both are facing major obstacles for their decisions and preferences. Anyway, the film does go a bit over the top perhaps when it comes to depicting homophobia as really it is basically accepted in our society nowadays and some of the drama did not ring true. But the actors somehow make it work eventually and Niewöhner holds his own well in the face of all these much more experienced and established German actors. Thumbs up to him and to everybody else. Another minor criticism is that the ending is maybe a bit too much feel-good and in the spirit of really wanting to end it on a happy note (despite the death of course), some realism was sacrificed by Lewandowski I guess. But nonetheless, it is a pretty decent first feature by him and it shows that he collected a solid deal of experience in other formats already in his career. The film almost never feels pretentious, but has an authentic touch to it and in my very example it definitely also helped that I like almost all of the actors. Besides, the setting and scenery also work pretty nicely with the overall story. I enjoyed these slightly over 1.5 hours and recommend checking them out. A positive surprise for sure.

I liked this movie. Some say it moved slowly, but considering the story it tells, that is appropriate. It is a young man's attempt to know the story about his parents, one of whom he has never known, and the other who is now dying. Some of the reviews here are complaining that it celebrated homophobia, and/or minimized the gay story line, or that it isn't truly a gay story at all. I disagree. The gay characters might be secondary to the primary character, but it's a gay story in how those secondary characters affect the primary character, and the impact they have had on him. This is about a young man caring for his dying father, who never knew his mother, and doesn't understand why his father refuses to talk about her, knowing that time is running out for him to learn anything about his mother. His reaction and frustration are normal. This is not celebrating homophobia; it is demonstrating how it impacts people and causes them to do unintentionally cruel actions; it is demonstrating the damage that homophobia does. I thought it gave a realistic portrayal of a man who lived his life in the closet but was determined not to die there. Is it so surprising that his son would be stunned at learning the truth about his parents? This wasn't about the son being homophobic, it was about his very reasonable and understandable sense of betrayal, learning that he had been told lies about his parents, for his entire life... and while his one remaining parent is in the throes of dying. Who wouldn't be shocked and frantic and angry at such a time? This was hardly celebrating homophobia; it was demonstrating its effects.

For the simple story. for use of details. for the slow pace. for the sensuality and for the fight against past. for the discover of life by Jonathan, interpreted in decent manner by Jannis Niewohner. sure, it is not an original story. but one who could be touching because, in smart way, discover different perspectives about family life,sufferance and youth, giving a wise portrait of pain and last refuge, about desire and love, about a meet who resurrect hidden events, the confusion and angry and vulnerability of a young man for who reality knows profound changes. a farm and a family. and the return of a familiar stranger.and the choice as foundation of own life.

This is quite a sad story. I watched this movie because my name is Jonathan and this got my attention. While watching this, I realized, it shows quite exactly the same story I faced in my life. My mother also suicided with pills, my father also lied to me about this, I lived on a farm and I am in the actual age of the main protagonist. Scary, isn't it?! However, the movie itself is not as good as it could be! I think for myself "if this story is good enough for a film" one should make a movie of MY life, having quite exactly what has been showed here plus even more daunting stuff like heroin-addiction, being in prison, found the best and only friend hanging dead in his apartment on his birthday, cinematic escape from psychiatry fleeing from a police helicopter, riding a train, loosing my cousin through another suicide, being in the woods on dmt while a(nother) police helicopter traced me down plus more and more stuff one could not imagine. However I do not care any much more, since I am going to die through euthanasia very soon in the age of 26 because I cannot take all this at all anymore! If any director reads this, feel free to make a movie of MY life, because if THIS one ("Jonathan") has a right to exist, mine will give you a few Oscars!