Veronika Decides to Die

The novel "Veronika Decides to Die" by Paulo Coelhos provides the template for the drama of the same name by Emily Young. The story centers on young Veronika (Sarah Michelle Gellar), whose life seems perfect on the outside. She has a well-paying job, lives in a posh apartment in the middle of New York, she sits young, good-looking and independent. But she is missing something very important: passion. And without passion Veronika doesn't want to live. And so she decides to die with the help of an overdose of sleeping pills.

But the attempt fails and the young woman wakes up in a mental institution. There, it is revealed to her by the hospital director, Dr. Blake (David Thewlis), that the sleeping pills have damaged her heart to such an extent that Veronika has only a few days to live. And although Veronika has already given up and longs for the coming death, these few last days will change her life forever...

In principle, "Veronika Decides to Die" has the right basic ingredients for a gripping and poignant drama. A moving script, a good ensemble of actors and some very moving moments. But the production as a whole just feels too forced, too melancholy to really capture the viewer. Sarah Michelle Gellar does her best to convey Veronika's indifference to her life. But unfortunately, at the crucial moment, she fails to reveal that something is beginning to move, to change, in her character. Her acting shows too few facets to clarify Veronika's development over the course of the film.

Where films like "Einer flog übers Kuckucksnest" or "K-Pax", which tell completely different stories but are embedded in a similar setting, were able to break up the gloom and despair of a psychiatric ward with well-dosed humor or endearingly quirky characters, "Veronika decides to die" gets too lost in the suffering of its characters. Even though there is a very clear positive message at the end, the viewer is burdened with such heaviness until then that it is almost impossible to break free from it at the end.

The director's intentions are undoubtedly good, this becomes clear in the film's successful and also touching moments. But unfortunately these good intentions are crushed by a sometimes unnecessary heaviness in such a way that this completely destroys the actual emotionality of the story in the most important moments. Therefore applies: despite many good approaches unfortunately only conditionally worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp