Everyone Else

In writer-director Maren Ade's carefully observed drama, a young German husband and wife watch their relationship crumble as a friendship with another couple tests their bond. On holiday in the Mediterranean, Gitti (Birgit Minichmayr), an outspoken publicist, and Chris (Lars Eidinger), a reticent architectural student, seem happy enough as they loll about his mother's pool and play old records. They argue, like most people, and Chris worries about a design contest, but things could be worse. Mostly the pair talk (which lends the film a French feel), but then they run into neighbors Hans (Hans-Jochen Wagner), an avuncular architect, and Sana (Nicole Marischka), a fashion designer. Things get off to a good start at a social gathering until Hans lectures Chris about his slow-moving career and Gitti tells him she finds that patronizing, which embarrasses Chris. After that, the bickering accelerates, despite Gitti's attempts at romantic gestures; and Chris' increasingly judgmental demeanor begins to take its toll on her, as further encounters with Hans and Sana deepen the divide. Although it's been compared to both L'Avventura and Scenes from a Marriage, Everyone Else has more in common with the earthy theatricality of Bergman than the existential ennui of Antonioni. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)