Must Love Death is a genuinely crazy mish-mash of romance and torture/survival horror. Actually a German student-film, the movie works on both its romance and its torture levels quite well, but it’s difficult for the viewer to determine if the unease they feel about the film is coming from the fact that these two genres have rarely – if ever – been seen together, or if the film simply doesn’t work when the sum of its parts is collected.
Must Love Death is actually two stories connected by one person. Norman is a man who has mostly lost hope. After his girlfriend sacks him he goes out to shoot himself in her aerobics class, but can’t do it, and is subsequently mocked by her. On his way home from this extremely humiliating episode he is hit by a car, meeting the lovely Jennifer, who is having some significant romance issues of her own. Jennifer and Norman agree to meet and subsequently build an immediate bond over a space trek-style television show that Jennifer’s uncle produces. An unfortunate misunderstanding with Jennifer’s old boyfriend lands Norman back in his suicidal feelings. Knowing he will never be able to do it alone he agrees to a group suicide with three other people, only referred to by their code names: John, Paul, George and Ringo. But when he arrives it becomes painfully obvious very quickly that he is the only one who will be doing any dying and when he doesn’t die on the first try he becomes the first of his new companions’ torture playthings.
It’s difficult to sort out whether or not I liked this film. I certainly liked the romance portion of the film and I certainly liked the torture/survival portion of the film, but I can’t say that I”m sure I liked them both together. It’s also difficult to sort out if the ambiguity I feel about it is due to the simple fact that I’ve never seen these two genres put together before. Certainly it is a well made movie and it knows where it’s going – even if the audience doesn’t – but I remain ambiguous about it.
As a result I can strongly recommend this movie with confidence since the torture is enough and romance are equally enough to make you squirm in your seats. This film is unique if nothing else and may be the beginning of a new genre. If only people can figure out how to feel about it.
Toronto After Dark runs from August 14 to 21, 2009 at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto. Click here for our coverage.
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