101 minutes – Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Festival release date:  September 6, 2024 – TIFF (World Premiere)
Release date: TBA
Production company: Wilding Pictures
Canadian distributor: levelFILM

Based on Goethe’s popular 1774 novella The Sorrows of Young Werther, this film should not be confused with two previous film adaptations in 1976 and 2007. This retelling by Toronto-based filmmaker José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço, making his feature directorial debut, brings the story up to date and sets the action in Toronto.  The aforementioned sorrows befall the young Werther, played by British actor Douglas Booth, and seem to be triggered by an accidental meeting with a young women named Charlotte (Alison Pill) just as he was getting set to begin a trip through Europe. Staggered by this chance encounter, he is enchanted, enthralled, smitten, to the point he puts his travels plans aside so he can win the heart of this woman who has captured his attention. Things would be going swimmingly if it wasn’t for the fact Charlotte is already engaged to a successful lawyer named Albert, played by Patrick J. Adams. Things go from bad to worse, but all with a sense of delayed happiness, of pending joy, of mirth and outright fun being managed by the fates.