"Lieber Thomas" or "Dear Thomas" is a German theatrical movie from 2021 and as you can see from the poster already, this is a black-and-white film. This was a creative decision to some extent, but from my perspective, it mostly had to do with the fact that this film is set several decades in the past actually, but I will get to this a little later. For now, let's just take a look at the basics here most of all. This is a really long film at 2.5 hours exactly pretty much. The director is Andreas Kleinert and he was born in 1962, so a round birthday this year for him and the greatest gift he kinda gave to himself with this film here because it achieved so much in terms of awards recognition. It was the dominant movie at the German Film Awards this year and we will see if it ends up becoming Germany's Oscar submission next year. If so, I do not believe it will stand much of a chance sadly against strong international competition. The writer is Thomas Wendrich, who is roughly a decade younger than Kleinert and these two have collaborated on other occasions already. What they did not work on together was Kleinert's "Wege in die Nacht" I think, a film I quite liked when I saw it and really could give it a rewatch. I hope Kleinert's success with this one here will also make that one seen by more people perhaps. That is also a film in black-and-white and there it felt more like a creative decision than here I would say in terms of depicting the bleakness and hopelessness of it all.
But now let's look at this one here: As for the cast, you see Albrecht Schuch on the poster and he is in almost every scene of the film. And he does a good job as a whole. I do not see him as some kind of revelation as you could think after how he did at the German Film Awards in recent years, but still. He is maybe among the best German actors as of now, especially from the younger generation. I wonder if he can make it to Hollywood as well. I am sure performances in international films will follow at some point. He of course also won a German Film Award and so did Jella Haase. Her first. I must say it was definitely too much. Her performance in this film is not particularly memorable or anything. In general, I feel like she is pretty overrated these days here in my country and it feels as if she almost gives the exact same performance in every movie since her breakthrough with the M'Barek film FJG. I do deny her talent, but there is no denying really how similar she looks to the young Katharina Thalbach here and there, the whole family basically. Then again, I think Thalbach is also one who shone rather through recognition value and being loud than through being particularly gifted unfortunately. More familiar faces in here: Emma Bading seems to be taking a solid route now after starting with kids films mostly and Joel Basman is almost always good in the films he shows up in, even if he really looks a lot like Tobey Maguire nowadays. Or just in this film. Jörg Schüttauf also deserves a mention here for playing the main character's father and he does good with what he is given. I am not sure if I would say awards-worthy, but his German Film Award nomination was not unjustified I suppose. Good for him.
The father-son relationship is very much at the center of the film. More than anything else almost in terms of conflicts we have here. Here and there, it was a bit confusing like when we saw father, mother and son laying in bed after the prison stay, but you could never be sure what was real and what was just fictitious or going on in the mind of a character and this is also the case already a long time before heavy drugs cloud Brasch's judgment. There is of course this scene in which he mistakes an item, a water dispenser, for his dad and there the drugs have already taken full effect on him. This conversation between father and son was among my favorite moments of the film. Looks like father Brasch was the only one who reached a relatively high age in the family. Fittingly, the real Horst Brasch died right before before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, which fit his background nicely with how faithful he was to the GDR and also the deep-rooted connections he had to famous GDR leaders. This is also why he informed the Stasi about what his son did and that he is there with him, so they could come and arrest him. The ultimate betrayal when he picked politics over his family. The idea of briefly going for a smoke was something that Brasch (Schuch) referenced also at a later stage of the film. He had not forgotten. His time in jail had a massive impact on Brasch also in terms of his mental state. Behind prison walls, he apparently developed a massive fear in terms of being locked-in. So he let his doors always open after that and even screamed at people when they were closing doors. It was something Brasch could not deal with at all and truly a phobia already. Authority never impressed him as you can see during the scene at the beach when the border police shows up and talks to him and the girl he is with there in this scene. Or the scenes with his father. Or the interview with the journalist. Or his teacher. And so on. In the last third of the film, there is also an elaboration on Brasch in the United States (New York) and how he was about to launch a career there as well. His mentor said something like how Brasch is the most interesting writer since Capote. I wonder if he was really considered such an up-and-comer. I was too young to know back then or didn't follow, even if I have the same first name.
There are other memorable scenes here, mostly the showy ones. I would not say that this film also delivered from a quietly subtle perspective. There is this scene of course with Bading it was I think when Brasch exposes her for what/who she is and also it was memorable how she says she cannot say the truth and this way she basically said the truth nonetheless. Or the scene in which Brasch shows up at a theater and is really in a bad mood, unleashes on everybody. Well, except Haase's character, but she knows how to deal with him for the most part. This scene, even if it was also tragic with the drug reference, was also one that offered us a funny moment, something you almost never see in this film. I am pretty talking about how Brasch is happy when the stage actress there really loses her manners and starts complaining and screaming like crazy and this is the energy and approach he wants from her creatively as an actress. We also see how women really adored Brasch. A lot of the time, especially in his early years before the prison sentence, he always had attractive girls surrounding him and he enjoyed it and they really wanted to be with him. Like moths to a flame. Often more than one and even his teacher at the university was at the same time appalled by and attracted to him. He was just appalled. Or indifferent. He says there is nothing she can teach him and the girls agree. It seems as if Brasch also had a big interest in music. In any case, it looks like the woman who accompanied him for a longer period of time like Haase's character or also the mother of his child early on did some singing and this is how they impressed him initially. There is even a moment during which he cannot look away from Haase's character when he sees her the first time. This was a bit too much maybe. But the one thing this film wants to show us is that despite him caring so much for his family (except his father) he was a very complicated man. With many nuances. For example, he loved the GDR too from some perspective and he was not fully eager all the way to get out of it as soon as he can. Look at the parallels he gives a journalist who interviews him and compares it to a romantic relationship that has ended.
Brasch is not an aggressor, but a man not scared of situational violence if he deems it necessary like when they are caught while putting these flyers into mailboxes. One of the most dramatic scenes of the film. An ounce of Sophie Scholl or the Hampels, even if those of course still had to face other fates many decades before that. More tragic fates. I talked about reality and fiction getting messed-up. This refers to some extent to Brasch's writing. The best example there is the inclusion of the man who killed two young women because they asked him to do so. Lilli Fichtner is pretty stunning by the way. And then there is near the end this lengthy scene with firearms up there and how he wants to deal with those interfering with his craft, with the loud music he hears while writing his pages. Police also get involved. I am sure this was all just fictitious. Also how he sees the spirit of his mother again who encourages him and even hands him an automatic weapon, so he can unleash even further. A final family reference. The way he goes out then like this when he is shot is surely more spectacular than how Brasch really died. I mean this scene with all the shooting was definitely somewhat memorable, but I did not like it too much from the storytelling perspective I must say. Too showy for my taste. Near the end, I also wondered if it was still Schuch there as we see a Brasch who has considerably aged and if this was all make-up on Schuch, but now I see it was indeed another actor. I thought so. His part was fairly short for sure. Overall, this is one of the better films of the year from Germany, but not because it was particularly good, but rather because the competition is not particularly strong at this point here in my country. No great times for German film sadly and it is pretty telling if an okay movie like this one here dominates the German Film Awards this much. I can see why the likes of Schrader are running away from here and why folks like Herzog or Wenders will surely never return. Nonetheless, this film gets a thumbs-up, but a rather cautious one. A film you can see, but not have to see and the small screen is also good enough. Positively recommended.
But now let's look at this one here: As for the cast, you see Albrecht Schuch on the poster and he is in almost every scene of the film. And he does a good job as a whole. I do not see him as some kind of revelation as you could think after how he did at the German Film Awards in recent years, but still. He is maybe among the best German actors as of now, especially from the younger generation. I wonder if he can make it to Hollywood as well. I am sure performances in international films will follow at some point. He of course also won a German Film Award and so did Jella Haase. Her first. I must say it was definitely too much. Her performance in this film is not particularly memorable or anything. In general, I feel like she is pretty overrated these days here in my country and it feels as if she almost gives the exact same performance in every movie since her breakthrough with the M'Barek film FJG. I do deny her talent, but there is no denying really how similar she looks to the young Katharina Thalbach here and there, the whole family basically. Then again, I think Thalbach is also one who shone rather through recognition value and being loud than through being particularly gifted unfortunately. More familiar faces in here: Emma Bading seems to be taking a solid route now after starting with kids films mostly and Joel Basman is almost always good in the films he shows up in, even if he really looks a lot like Tobey Maguire nowadays. Or just in this film. Jörg Schüttauf also deserves a mention here for playing the main character's father and he does good with what he is given. I am not sure if I would say awards-worthy, but his German Film Award nomination was not unjustified I suppose. Good for him.
The father-son relationship is very much at the center of the film. More than anything else almost in terms of conflicts we have here. Here and there, it was a bit confusing like when we saw father, mother and son laying in bed after the prison stay, but you could never be sure what was real and what was just fictitious or going on in the mind of a character and this is also the case already a long time before heavy drugs cloud Brasch's judgment. There is of course this scene in which he mistakes an item, a water dispenser, for his dad and there the drugs have already taken full effect on him. This conversation between father and son was among my favorite moments of the film. Looks like father Brasch was the only one who reached a relatively high age in the family. Fittingly, the real Horst Brasch died right before before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, which fit his background nicely with how faithful he was to the GDR and also the deep-rooted connections he had to famous GDR leaders. This is also why he informed the Stasi about what his son did and that he is there with him, so they could come and arrest him. The ultimate betrayal when he picked politics over his family. The idea of briefly going for a smoke was something that Brasch (Schuch) referenced also at a later stage of the film. He had not forgotten. His time in jail had a massive impact on Brasch also in terms of his mental state. Behind prison walls, he apparently developed a massive fear in terms of being locked-in. So he let his doors always open after that and even screamed at people when they were closing doors. It was something Brasch could not deal with at all and truly a phobia already. Authority never impressed him as you can see during the scene at the beach when the border police shows up and talks to him and the girl he is with there in this scene. Or the scenes with his father. Or the interview with the journalist. Or his teacher. And so on. In the last third of the film, there is also an elaboration on Brasch in the United States (New York) and how he was about to launch a career there as well. His mentor said something like how Brasch is the most interesting writer since Capote. I wonder if he was really considered such an up-and-comer. I was too young to know back then or didn't follow, even if I have the same first name.
There are other memorable scenes here, mostly the showy ones. I would not say that this film also delivered from a quietly subtle perspective. There is this scene of course with Bading it was I think when Brasch exposes her for what/who she is and also it was memorable how she says she cannot say the truth and this way she basically said the truth nonetheless. Or the scene in which Brasch shows up at a theater and is really in a bad mood, unleashes on everybody. Well, except Haase's character, but she knows how to deal with him for the most part. This scene, even if it was also tragic with the drug reference, was also one that offered us a funny moment, something you almost never see in this film. I am pretty talking about how Brasch is happy when the stage actress there really loses her manners and starts complaining and screaming like crazy and this is the energy and approach he wants from her creatively as an actress. We also see how women really adored Brasch. A lot of the time, especially in his early years before the prison sentence, he always had attractive girls surrounding him and he enjoyed it and they really wanted to be with him. Like moths to a flame. Often more than one and even his teacher at the university was at the same time appalled by and attracted to him. He was just appalled. Or indifferent. He says there is nothing she can teach him and the girls agree. It seems as if Brasch also had a big interest in music. In any case, it looks like the woman who accompanied him for a longer period of time like Haase's character or also the mother of his child early on did some singing and this is how they impressed him initially. There is even a moment during which he cannot look away from Haase's character when he sees her the first time. This was a bit too much maybe. But the one thing this film wants to show us is that despite him caring so much for his family (except his father) he was a very complicated man. With many nuances. For example, he loved the GDR too from some perspective and he was not fully eager all the way to get out of it as soon as he can. Look at the parallels he gives a journalist who interviews him and compares it to a romantic relationship that has ended.
Brasch is not an aggressor, but a man not scared of situational violence if he deems it necessary like when they are caught while putting these flyers into mailboxes. One of the most dramatic scenes of the film. An ounce of Sophie Scholl or the Hampels, even if those of course still had to face other fates many decades before that. More tragic fates. I talked about reality and fiction getting messed-up. This refers to some extent to Brasch's writing. The best example there is the inclusion of the man who killed two young women because they asked him to do so. Lilli Fichtner is pretty stunning by the way. And then there is near the end this lengthy scene with firearms up there and how he wants to deal with those interfering with his craft, with the loud music he hears while writing his pages. Police also get involved. I am sure this was all just fictitious. Also how he sees the spirit of his mother again who encourages him and even hands him an automatic weapon, so he can unleash even further. A final family reference. The way he goes out then like this when he is shot is surely more spectacular than how Brasch really died. I mean this scene with all the shooting was definitely somewhat memorable, but I did not like it too much from the storytelling perspective I must say. Too showy for my taste. Near the end, I also wondered if it was still Schuch there as we see a Brasch who has considerably aged and if this was all make-up on Schuch, but now I see it was indeed another actor. I thought so. His part was fairly short for sure. Overall, this is one of the better films of the year from Germany, but not because it was particularly good, but rather because the competition is not particularly strong at this point here in my country. No great times for German film sadly and it is pretty telling if an okay movie like this one here dominates the German Film Awards this much. I can see why the likes of Schrader are running away from here and why folks like Herzog or Wenders will surely never return. Nonetheless, this film gets a thumbs-up, but a rather cautious one. A film you can see, but not have to see and the small screen is also good enough. Positively recommended.
