Lara - Blu-ray

Film: Lara (Corinna Harfouch) could actually celebrate her sixtieth birthday full of joy and pride. After all, her son Viktor (Tom Schilling) is giving an important piano concert that very evening. And wasn't it Lara who shaped her son for his musical career after the dream of a professional musical career had been dashed for herself? Too bad Lara hasn't been able to reach her son for days and he obviously doesn't want her to come to his concert. But she doesn't let that intimidate her: she decisively buys up all the remaining tickets for the concert and hands them out to everyone she meets that day. But the more Lara struggles to have a successful evening, the more events spiral out of control.

Jan-Ole Gerster took a long time to write the follow-up to his surprise hit Oh Boy. Seven years have passed since his acclaimed debut. Lara has some parallels to its predecessor. Here, as there, the viewer follows the main character around Berlin for a day. And there is a subtly woven humor in both films, though it was much more evident in Oh Boy than it is here. An even more obvious difference between the two works is the visuals. The reduced black and white images of Oh Boy are contrasted here with very powerful shots that give the settings in Berlin an atmosphere all their own.

What is really interesting in this film is the character drawing. While it wasn't exactly difficult to develop sympathy for Tom Schilling's character in Oh Boy, it's a different story with the title character, who is superbly portrayed by Corinna Harfouch. Lara is really not a particularly sympathetic woman. She radiates an almost imperious arrogance that is only broken by brief moments of recognizable vulnerability. But the longer the audience follows Lara through her day, the more approachable this person becomes. And at the latest, when she visits her mother, something like understanding - and even a tiny bit of pity - for her emerges.

The fact that Harfouch does not overplay this character, but reduces her performance to small nuances, somehow makes the complex character of Lara very authentic - even if the character itself may seem rather clichéd at its core. Supported by excellent supporting actors, which include Rainer Bock (now also seen internationally, among others in the great series Better call Saul) and Oh Boy actor Tom Schilling, Corinna Harfouch carries this small, unexciting and yet very rousing drama, which absolutely deserves a worth seeing.

Picture + Sound: The picture quality leaves a very positive impression with very authentic-looking colors and a high overall sharpness. This is further underlined by the successful mixing of the contrasts and a good detail representation especially in the outdoor scenes. The DTS-HD 5.1 mix is rather unspectacular, but captures the mood of the story well and delivers dialogue powerfully. All in all, these technical aspects earn a well-deserved: good!

Extras: As a bonus, the Blu-ray has four mini-featurettes about the director, the lead actress, the story, and about the classical music in the film, in addition to a very short making of (approx. 3:54 min.). However, since these promo clips each have a running time of less than a minute, don't expect too much in-depth information here.

Conclusion: Lara is an unexciting drama, infused with quiet humor and a subtle sentimentality. While the film doesn't quite reach the quality of Jan-Ole Gerster's acclaimed debut Oh Boy, the work still scores points with an extremely strong Corinna Harfouch, very engaging imagery and wonderful dialogue. The Blu-ray pleases with an atmospheric realization on an audiovisual level. The bonus material, on the other hand, remains rather superficial. All in all, however, there is clearly a: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp