Although actress and television presenter Désirée Nosbusch's feature directorial debut is subtitled “A Love Story,” it is less about love than about sadness. After ten years, a former couple meets again in the cemetery where their child is buried. There is talk about the loss of a son and love, about dealing with grief, trying to find some closure. Only two people appear, the man and the woman, played by Tim Roth (“Pulp Fiction”) and Trine Dyrholm (“The Girl with the Needle”), who make a real effort and sometimes create touching moments with their intense acting. But in the end, even they cannot hide the fact that “Poison – A love story“ is a film adaptation of a play whose stage origins are all too clear.
He drives up by car, she comes by bike. She doesn't have far to go to the cemetery where they will meet for the first time in ten years; he comes all the way from the Netherlands. Lucas (Tim Roth) is a writer and Edith (Trine Dyrholm) works as a lecturer, but above all she is still grieving for their son, who died in a traffic accident many years ago. Soon after the funeral in the small, picturesque cemetery located in a valley, Lucas packed his bags and left to start a new life. Now planned renovation work at the cemetery has forced a meeting between the former couple, who after all this time have a lot to talk about together…
The reunion wasn't necessarily voluntary. Still, there's a lot to discuss between Lucas (Tim Roth) and Edith (Trine Dyrholm).
Désirée Nosbusch (born in 1965) has been known to German television audiences for many years. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Luxembourg-born actress has appeared – in addition to the cult scandal classic “The Fan” – primarily in series and television films. In addition, as a Luxembourger who grew up speaking many languages, she also presented various television shows, including the Eurovision Song Contest. Now she has directed a feature film for the first time. Although she hasn't lost a child herself, Nosbusch has had various separations that were intensively covered by the tabloid press. So she knows what she's talking about when she puts an estranged couple at the center of her film who, despite years of separation, quickly realize that there is still a certain level of closeness.
Despite the initially dramatic initial situation, not much more happens in “Poison – A Love Story” than two grown people behaving like adults and talking to each other for 90 minutes. Different topics are touched upon and extensive conversations are held, which gradually convey to the audience the details of the relationship, the serious accident and the resulting separation.
You can feel the stage even if it's not there
It's hard to miss the fact that a play served as a model here. It comes from the Dutch author Lot Vekemans and premiered in 2009. It was already released in 2013 by the Spaniard Isabel Coixet under the title “Yesterday Never Ends”, but the film was not shown regularly in cinemas in this country at the time, but only in the Panorama of the Berlinale. However, Coixet (“My Life Without Me”), who was much more experienced in cinema, was more successful in her attempt to resolve the original's stage origins on film than Désirée Nosbusch in her version.
The events in “Poison – A Love Story” hardly break up the action more than regular changes of location: from the entrance hall of the cemetery building you go to the toilet, then to the church, finally to the car and finally to a viewing point above the cemetery. The static staging ensures that the focus is even more on the dialogues, which, however, do not seem pointed enough for such a reduced two-person play to even fill the manageable 90 minutes.
The images in “Poison” often have a heaviness to them that reflects the weight of the conversations taking place.
At the same time, the focus is of course massively on the two stars of the film – and this is where the greatest quality of the film lies: With Tim Roth and Trine Dyrholm, Désirée Nosbusch has been able to hire an experienced duo who have a lot of life experience on their faces. They fill their respective characters with depth, sadness and life. In its best moments, “Poison” tells of the difficult process of grieving, of the different ways in which the death of a child is dealt with, of hurt feelings and the desire to draw a line in the sand. Most of the time, however, the directorial debut plods along rather sedately and is content with showing two people talking, which is too often just as exciting as it sounds.
Conclusion: The stars Tim Roth and Trine Dyrholm always give the film warmth and depth despite the mixed dialogue. Overall, Désirée Nosbusch's directorial debut can hardly hide its stage origins; “Poison – A Love Story” is, on the whole, staged in an all-too-static manner.