'Young Werther' Reviews: "If you’re looking for a familiar story that features elements of early 2000s rom-coms, including fun loving best friends and awkward sexual tension in a love triangle, you’ll be pleased with this film"

         On December 13, 2024, Lionsgate releases 'Young Werther', which has received a mixed reception from critics. "Patrick J. Adams, Douglas Booth and Alison Pill star in this romantic comedy based on the classic smash hit novel of tragic romance. While on a simple errand to Toronto, a carefree and charming young writer named Werther stumbles across the love of his life only to discover that the young woman is engaged. Despite the urgings of his hypochondriac best friend, Werther turns his world upside down in a desperate, misguided and hilarious quest to win her heart." But what did the critics say?

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

        Justin Bower of Loud and Clear Reviews says, "It’s also loads of fun. If you’re looking for a familiar story that features elements of early 2000s rom-coms, including fun loving best friends and awkward sexual tension in a love triangle, you’ll be pleased with this film. While it offers some hilarious jokes and a somewhat intriguing storyline, it’s nothing revolutionary. The acting, led strongly by Booth and Pill and supported by Adams, is the best part of Young Werther. Not only is Werther and Charlotte’s chemistry believable, but the cast as a whole works perfectly together. This salvages an oddly paced story that attempts to cover too much ground in a short runtime. Young Werther’s script is well written. I usually detest expositional dialogue, but it is utilized in a clever way to clarify character backstories and interests. Other big moments, such as Werther’s inevitable proclamation of love for Charlotte, are sentimental and avoid being cringeworthy. There are plenty of heartstopping moments throughout; the ending is surprising, the most original portion of the film. Romantic bliss can only go so far, and the conflict at the heart of Werther and Charlotte’s relationship eventually surfaces. Arriving at the end, however, is a journey writer-director José Lourenço seemed reluctant to embark upon. Long, dialogue-heavy scenes are interrupted by montages over catchy songs to fill in the gaps of lost plot progress. While I think no rom-com is complete without a good montage, Young Werther overuses them, resulting in a disjointed experience overall."

       Bill Chambers of Film Freak Central notes, "Pill has received some of the best reviews of her career as the winsome Charlotte, but it’s a blessing and a curse that the character’s chapter-skipped youth resonates with how Pill went straight from playing students to teachers in the popular imagination because no one in the past 20 years had the insight to make her the romantic lead. She’s in her element here, but she’s undoubtedly a bit long in the tooth for Charlotte, and styled so rigidly it’s as though one hair out of place will cause the decades to instantly catch up with her. It reduces her to a cartoon character, and one of those is already enough for the remarkably thin Young Werther, a movie that confuses the novel’s gravitas with its renown. Instead of writing a roman à clef about his chaste affair with Charlotte, The Sorrows of Young Walter, and sending her a copy, Werther may as well have texted her; that “sorrows” lands with all the heft of “[sadface emoji], lol.”