About 11,000 kilometers below sea level, the Mariana Trench is the deepest place in the Pacific Ocean. Nearby are the Mariana Islands, after which the deep-sea channel was named – and so did the novel “Mariana Trenchby Jasmin Schreiber (» on Amazon*) received his title. The eponymous location is a symbol of the deep sadness and despair that the protagonists feel after a painful loss. The first chapter is called “11,000” – the maximum depth of the Mariana Trench. In the following 23 chapters the number gets smaller and smaller until it finally reaches zero in the last section – finally surfacing and taking a breath. The debut novel was praised above all for the ease with which Schreiber tackles even difficult topics such as death, sadness, guilt and atonement.
The literary success was literally crying out for a film adaptation with a distinctive feel-good character – and in fact it didn't take long to arrive: director Eileen Byrne, however, does not achieve the same balancing act between heaviness and lightness with her first feature film that made the original so special . This may partly be due to the fact that heroines who are driven on a journey into the unknown by external circumstances and who above all have to find themselves are incredibly overstressed in the cinematic cosmos. Especially when two people meet who initially can't stand each other, but in the end they have one heart and one soul.
Paula (Luna Wedler) still has to find a way to deal with her grief. Going into a cemetery at night is a good start…
It all begins when Paula (Luna Wedler) illegally sneaks into the cemetery at night where her little brother is buried. She never got over the fact that Tim drowned in the sea in Italy. It's not the first time, but that evening she bumps into Helmut (Edgar Selge), who is digging up the urn with his wife's ashes. Paula spontaneously helps him. But they are discovered and have to escape together in Helmut's motorhome…
“Marianna Trench” begins in a spooky setting and with some slapstick. There is a lot to be said for the fact that we are dealing with a fast-paced tragicomedy. Especially since a camper van turns out to be the film's bizarre main setting. Helmut wants to take the vehicle to Italy to bury the urn in his garden, where he thinks it belongs. Paula spontaneously asks to be taken to visit the beach again where her brother died in the sea. Helmut isn't keen on it at all, but Paula won't be put off. An argument breaks out, then another, and here the film stalls for a while. And when it finally goes ahead, it's all incredibly predictable.
Too much standstill – especially for a road movie
Clearly the two form a shared destiny and so the old man and the girl fight together on the journey to the sea. In doing so, they increasingly realize what the audience has long since understood: what unites them is the grief over the death of a loved one, and only together can they find inner peace. The plot doesn't have anything surprising to offer. The director dutifully uses the conventions of a road movie that you've seen countless times before – it's quite likeable at times, but there are also moments where you wish Helmut would press the accelerator of his camper a little more.
Of course, it becomes highly emotional in the last third, especially for Paula, who once again completely exposes herself to her pain. But the encounter and experiences with her unexpected companion allow her to find joy in life again.
Helmut (Edgar Selge) has decided to bring his late wife's ashes home.
On an emotional level, Luna Wedler (“The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”) and Edgar Selge (“The Experiment”) demonstrate their full acting skills – touchingly, perhaps even tear-jerkingly. But because everything was just to be expected, you also feel a little manipulated at the same moment. When it comes to tragedy, Eileen Byrne definitely pushes the right buttons, but she hits the tone for comedy less well. The lightness that was praised in the book falls flat in the film, and so something is missing to counteract the oppressiveness of the story. It's always been easier to provoke tears than laughter.
Conclusion: A tragicomedy in which melancholy and lightness cannot find a harmonious harmony. On the one hand, because the usual paths of a road movie are pretty crazy. On the other hand, because the humorous moments of the plot are nowhere near as successful as the tragic ones.
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