The Elementary Particles

Michel Houellebecq’s controversial novel makes it to the big screen in this professional, gripping German adaptation. The film tells the story of two half-brothers: Bruno (Moritz Bleibtreu), a literature professor obsessed with getting and having sex, and Michael (Christian Ulmen), a withdrawn scientist working on the possibility of non-sexual reproduction. Both share a crazed hippie chick mother who abandoned them very young (only to reappear with a vengeance) and though their reactions to her cavalier attitude differ their emotional baggage is similarly heavy. Things look up when love comes to both — childhood friend Annabelle (Franka Potente) for Michael; hell raising swinger Christiane (Martina Gedeck) for Bruno — but health problems for both women threaten the boys’ fragile selves. I can’t vouch for fidelity to the novel but one can see how the movie’s total rejection of the ’60s ethos might ruffle a few feathers; I don’t share its total cynicism about the love generation’s total failure but the story is still a fairly accurate study of how people betrayed by their parents can shut down completely. Though not an aesthetic genius, director Oskar Roehler does a fairly good job presenting his actors and providing a space for them to do their best; suffice it to say that Bleibtreu earned his prize at Berlin. Sadly, the film falters when one character becomes paralysed (while another acts like a schmuck and seals her doom) and for that reason should annoy advocates for the disabled, but until that point it’s a sustained and moving film that will provoke discussion from its viewers. Extras include lengthy interviews with Roehler, the producers and the cast, and a so-so "making of” featurette.