Director: Matthias Glasner (Fandango, Sexy Sadie)
Writers: Judith Angerbauer, Matthias Glasner, Jürgen Vogel
Producers: Frank Döhmann, Matthias Glasner, Christian Granderath, Jürgen Vogel
Starring: Jürgen Vogel, Sabine Timoteo, André Hennicke, Manfred Zapatka
MPAA Rating: NR
Running time: 163 min

It’s one thing to walk away from a horror film feeling a bit shaken and, if effective, a little scared but there’s something all together different and that much more profound when some of the same uneasy emotions are brought forth by a film about real people in realistic situations, suffering through genuine emotions and heartbreaking situations.

Matthias Glasner’s The Free Will is one such film. While many of us complain that Hollywood is predictable and “safe”, Glasner avoids safety nets and instead drags the audience through some of the most emotionally damaging scenes I’ve seen captured on film. It begins with Theo, our anti-hero, throwing a tray of glasses at a group of school children. He’s obviously emotionally unstable as he storms away towards his car uttering a stream of profanities. Visibly angry, he comes up on a woman on a bicycle and the scenes that follow are painful even to recount. For the next ten minutes, Theo rapes and beats the stranger and all the while, we watch or rather the camera watched while I squirmed and peeked through my fingers.

I was trying to zero in on why I continued to watch the film after such a traumatizing scene. It may have something to do with Glasner’s choice to shoot the scene, and the film, in a minimalist, neo-realist style but much more likely, the reason I didn’t turn it off is because there’s no emotional manipulation in the way the scene is shot; there’s a sense of documentation, not judgment. The audience is left to form their own emotional response and opinion though the brutality of the scene leaves little choice as to what that emotional response will be.

The scene closes with Theo being beaten by police and after a fade to black, we are re-introduced to Theo in the midst of his exit interview. It’s been nine years since that fateful day and Theo believes himself rehabilitated. He is transferred to a halfway house where he starts to put his life back together and for a while, it appears as though he’s making good progress. He has a job, he is taking out his frustrations with Karate and he is slowly trying to re-integrate himself into society. Except that the audience, being privy to Theo’s past and his private actions, is painfully aware that at his core, he is still a monster. He himself repeatedly admits that he still feels “the burning” yet, he is encouraged to socialize and try to interact normally with women. After a few failed attempts, he reluctantly begins a relationship with Nettie, a young woman; herself is a victim of abuse. Their relationship develops slowly and though she seems interested, Theo is somewhat reluctant. After a bit of soul searching, or perhaps from pressure to prove to himself that he is a changed man (no pressure to prove to the world that he has chance since most of the general population has no idea who he is or what he has done), Theo travels to find Nettie and their relationship which was at first distant, is almost immediately elevated to inseparable partnership.

There is a deep need and passion between the two, a raw emotion that comes through via both Jürgen Vogel and Sabine Timoteo’s performances. They seem a perfect match as though they provide a lifeline and fill a void within each other; she closing in on Theo’s heart and taming his rage and he providing Nettie with the support she needs to break the bonds of abuse. Two halves of a whole. Yet, there is always the nagging feeling that things are not quite right. She knows nothing of his past and regardless of how well Theo appears to be adjusting, there is always the knowledge of his past and it is this knowledge that hovers over the film.

The viewer’s knowledge of Theo’s wrongdoings tint our view of his character and it’s difficult, especially after seeing the brutality of his actions, to overlook and forget that it ever happened. Perhaps because I am a woman, I feel that hate more strongly so to see Theo making a life for himself, even if that life is one of constant inner struggle, angered me. He should not be free to roam the streets, being a possible threat to others; limit his free will – he lost it when he committed his crimes. But Glasner isn’t interested in black and white’s. It’s all about the various shades of gray and he never once relents. He doesn’t give the audience what it wants to see: revenge. Instead, we are dragged further into the mud, struggling to stay afloat as Theo expresses his freedom, wreaking havoc and damaging Nettie, the one person in his life who is more than willing to risk herself for him. It’s infuriating to see her, physically and emotionally broken, return to his side. I wanted to reach inside the screen and shake some sense into her but Glasner’s choice to wrap the film in realism also means that individuals make bad, even wrong, choices or simply choices others will never understand.

The Free Will is not for the faint of heart but it is well worth seeing. It’s visceral and unflinching in its realism and violence but it also brings forth a number of issues I had not expected to be met with, namely the seemingly opposing ideas of reintegration of reformed criminals into society and the idea that you can never fully reform a criminal. But again, this is not a simple question of yes or no and the film doesn’t suggest an answer, it simply poses the question and leaves it to the viewer to fill in the rest. I think we’re intelligent enough to handle the challenge and it’s nice to see a director who agrees.

Links:
IMDb profile
Official Site
Flixster Profile for The Free Will