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‘Young Werther’ Review: Suitor or Stalker? This Canadian Comedy’s Blindly Narcissistic Hero Is Both
'Young Werther' marks a fresh, comic update on Johann Wolfgang Goethe's literary classic.
Scion of a wealthy clan in Montreal’s upscale Westmount suburb, he had come to Toronto with hypochrondriac bestie Paul (Jaouhar Ben Ayed) on what was anticipated as a short errand, retrieving a family heirloom. Nothing if not hubristic, Werther pushes into her conversation with younger sibling Sissy ( Iris Apatow) and friend Melanie (Amrit Kaur), and exerts sufficient charm that he’s invited to her birthday party that evening — albeit by the already-crush-struck sister. And there are a couple too many cute montages providing narrative shortcuts, selling the idea that W. is joie de vivre personified (frankly, he seems a little exhausting), or that the two leads are meant for one another (in truth they seem ill-matched, a frolicking poodle and dutiful plowhorse).
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