Of all the films I thought I would see this year, a modern day retelling of a 1774 Goethe epistolary novel set in Toronto was not one of them, but I am glad it ended up being made anyways. Young Werther, based on the novel The Sorrows of Young Werthe by Johann Wolfgang Goethe is the first feature from director and writer José Lourenço, starring Douglas Booth, Alison Pill, Patrick J. Adams, and Iris Apatow. The film follows Booth’s Werther, as his trip to Toronto to complete one simple task becomes an odyssey of following passionate love at first sight that continues to expand his time away from home. As he pursues his love for Pill’s Charlotte, pushed back by her own personal relationships and circumstances, Werther struggles in prioritizing upholding societal expectations surrounding relationships in contrast to prioritizing his own personal desires.

The film uniquely sets its scene at the VIA train station in Union Station, Toronto. On a mission to retrieve a horse sculpture for his mother back in Montreal, Werther unintentionally meets Charlotte, her sister Sissy (Iris Apatow), and her friend Melanie (Amrit Kaur) in a chance encounter. Following a night of truth and rare fun for Charlotte, Werther learns she is engaged to Albert (Patrick J. Adams), a lawyer who is helping her to raise her 6 siblings after her parents early deaths. What follows is a journey of Werther, experiencing uncontrollable love and passion towards Charlotte, feelings that society tells him he should conceal because of her prior relationships, but also that he so desperately needs to share with the world.

It is endearing how the simple story of Werther has been translated into a modern Toronto. Young Werther does not simply just capture Toronto in the background, calling it some unnamed city, or using it as a stage for a different city altogether. Rather, the film fully embraces Toronto, celebrating its roots as a Canadian film, and the city which it is set within. Beaches, skylines, train stations, and building interior and exteriors are all instantly recognizable, telling this classic story in the city of Toronto, maintaining its relatability even in the modern age.

On top of this pure celebration of Toronto and the love and passion that is possible within it, Young Werther‘s translation of a story from the 1700’s into the modern day is something to be celebrated. It managed to find natural correlations between the old and the new, while still presenting everything with an air of the past, placing Werther in a modern world where he feels both totally at home, and also totally artificial surrounded by the present day. Douglas Booth’s performance here really elevates this feeling the film gives off of toeing the line between the past and the present, performing in an over the top manner that feels out of place in the modern day where he is living, yet so familiar in the context of the source material.

Alison Pill also perfectly captures the purely good hearted Charlotte, and her own personal crisis choosing between two men she has grown to love, working through her struggles with her own partner alongside those related to her growing feelings towards Werther. Iris Apatow is unfortunately forgettable, despite her comedic value in the film. Her performance sometimes stunts the natural flow of chemistry between Booth’s Werther and Pill’s Charlotte in a way that is exterior to the plot, but is luckily made scarce in the second and third act. Patrick J. Adams beautifully supports both Pill’s passionate performance and Booth’s extravagant yet fitting embodiment of a young Werther in love, capturing the well-intentioned man stuck in the middle and working through his own faults highlighted by those around him.

Writer José Lourenço’s script seems to really understand the connections it must make in translating a work of the past into a modern day context. While hilarious at times, especially through Werther’s own dry humor and seeming inability to fit into a modern Toronto, it still allows the viewers space to breathe in the more touching and sad moments of the story. There are some beats that seem to slightly slow down the pacing of the film, due most possibly to the ever withstanding personality of Werther. In his complete refusal throughout almost the entire runtime to move past his feelings for Charlotte as she and other countlessly repeat that she is not available, he remains headstrong, to the possible benefit of the character, but the unfortunate loss of the forward pacing of the plot. For every step forward the story tried to take, Werther’s relentless resistance of placing his own personal desires behind anything else becomes something that keeps pushing it back, portraying so deeply the character and flaws of Werther to the audience, but at a slight cost. Sure, this is his character, but when it comes at the expense of the pacing of the telling of a story on the big screen, I think its translation comes off as slightly slow.

Young Werther may not be the best modern day adaptation of a classic novel. But its entertaining performances, especially from Douglas Booth who succeeds at translating the over-the-top and ever-persistent nature of Werther in a modern world, as well as its comedic timing make it an enjoyable film. Backgrounded by memorable Toronto skylines and iconic locations, Young Werther will be adored by those who call this city their home.

Young Werther was screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Image courtesy of TIFF.