Ein Weg (German) [Paths]

This film is an an interesting and a very cautious approach to the traces of a long relationship. Sadly, the outlook is really slow and sometimes tests the patience of the audience. There are brief moments of absolute brilliance but they are very few far and between. Most times, we keep seeing the events on how the couple came together and how the relationship has evolved over the years.

We meet Martin and Andreas as a loving couple who are very much in love. Andreas works in a workshop and creates furniture, and we are not sure yet what Martin does. Next we see they are a bit older and their 19 year old son Max is leaving home to go to college. And then we see that the couple is dealing with issues which escalate further when they decide to take their annual vacation at the sea. This is when flashback shows us how the couple met, instant attraction, how Andreas slowly tells Martin that he was once married and has a son Max. We share with them some beautiful moments of the three of them sharing life together and Max slowly just becomes part of their life. When Martin grows up, we see that Martin is struggling with his job situation and even Martin is just making his ends meet. Work related stress and various misunderstandings slowly start creating a rift between the two. The two struggle to communicate and agree on any anything at all. Eventually they decide to go their separate ways. They are both terribly hurt by the decision but there is no option. Max continues to keep a balance between the two. Finally we move a couple more years and see that Martin and Andreas meet again when they both happen to take their yearly sea vacation at the same time. Thankfully they are both mature enough to be decent humans and ex-lovers, reminiscent on good old times and accept their current situation and try to be friends going forward.

The film shows love between a gay couple and various facets of it. What is the force that causes two people out of billions to decide to spend so much of their lives together? And what makes couples decide to part after such a long time? These are some of the questions that the makers have tried to address and show. Most things in the film natural and that makes it slightly interesting. Thankfully there are no unnecessary explicit sex scenes but the focus is more on their tender love with each other and their son Max. The life situations, work situation, finance situation etc and some of the reasons the couple start disintegrating. But sadly, in trying to portray a picture of years of love a gay couple. the story moves at a very very slow pace and that overbears everything else. you wanna connect with the characters and you do it to a good extent except how I wish the editing was tighter. If you read my blog, you know that I am all about experimentation and don't mind slow narrative as long as it still makes sense, but I think this went way too far. Performances were all quite good and I am glad there was never anything over the top.

This is strictly an average movie. Beautiful locales of shooting and good performances but the film overall struggles to keep your attention. (5.5/10)