Review of Jack

"Jack" is already the third common film project by writer-director Edward Berger and Nele Mueller-Stofen. The two are married as well and Mueller-Stofen, primarily an actress so far, has co-written the screenplay here and also appears in a supporting role. The title character Jack is played by child actor Ivo Pietzcker and he managed to carry the film nicely, which is even more impressive given that he has never appeared in a movie before. It's a very decent film with not too many weaknesses. One of the I found was the lead character's mother and here I am not talking about the way the actress played her, but about the way she was written. I assume it was the filmmakers' intention to create a character where you could never really be sure if you like or dislike her, but her permanent changes in attitude towards her children were just a bit too much to be believable. Early on, she defends Jack against her then-boyfriend when he throws his stuff out of the window. After an accident with the younger brother, she decides to send Jack to a children's home temporarily. Then she seems to revoke the decision and tells how much she loves him. Then he ends up there too. Finally, she does not even seem to care for the younger brother anymore and disappears for days, only to return in the end again to show how much she loves her two boys again, or does she?

There is other minor criticisms such as the ending which was not really easy to understand why he returns to the children's home again. I wish it could have ended the moment they saw their mother return with the lights being on in the flat. Anyway, it didn't. Don't be confused though. I think this was a good movie and I would recommend it. The strengths of it were basically the scenes at the children's home and Jack being on his own alone in Berlin trying to get food, binoculars and more. If you live in the German capital, it is even more worth a watch as you may recognize some of the locations where this was made.