‘What Marielle Knows’ review: Stylish, sly German comedy starring Julia Jentsch

Dir/scr: Frederic Hambalek. Germany. 2025. 87mins.

Ever since a buddy slapped her face within the playground, 13-year-old Marielle has gained the power to see and listen to every little thing her dad and mom do and say, all day and all evening. The rise of parental surveillance is turned on its head on this trendy, thought-provoking German comedy which runs engagingly with its high-concept premise with out as soon as reducing the bar.

Handsome viewers pleaser 

One of many issues that makes What Marielle Is aware of greater than a teenager-parent spin on a play-it-for-laughs mindreading comedy like Nancy Meyers’ What Girls Need, is the way in which its story is deepened and given resonance by the setting. That is an anodyne city world of boxy homes, places of work and colleges, open-plan but additionally alienating, in a German metropolis (however it might be anyplace in Europe) the place supposedly glad, well-off, cultured folks appear to be simply going via the motions. That ought to assist this handsome viewers pleaser enchantment to distributors and audiences alike.

Hambalek’s script is a talented tumbler, in a position to flip from drama to hilarity and again once more in seconds. It helps that seasoned German actors Julia Jentsch and Felix Kramer discover a plausible manner into their roles as Marielle’s dad and mom Julia and Tobias, making this really feel like an actual marriage in disaster with out sacrificing any of the comedian timing. The viewers is primed by a tour-de-force opening scene wherein Julia and lascivious work-colleague Max (Mehmet Atesci) dirty-talk, with out truly carrying via on their phrases, throughout a cigarette break. The scene is humorous sufficient in its personal proper, however it will get a second wind quickly after when Julia realises that her daughter noticed and heard every little thing.

When deeply shy solely baby Marielle reluctantly reveals her new-found capability to her dad and mom within the cool, soulless modernist house the three share, disbelief is, after all, the primary response. Then comes deceit. Julia is adamant she doesn’t smoke. Insecure Tobias is equally certain that he didn’t let a cocky junior colleague lead a mutiny towards him throughout a piece assembly at his publishing firm. Each are mendacity, as a result of we and Marielle noticed and heard what occurred – however don’t all dad and mom have idealised photographs they wish to undertaking to their children? 

After the lies comes mutual devastation then deviousness, reminiscent of when Tobias guarantees to let Marielle have her pill again if she tells him what mum mentioned earlier that day. Lastly, the self-censorship and the aware performances arrive, together with some actually humorous moments like a hilarious mother-daughter intercourse schooling lesson.

What grounds the story is Marielle herself. Whereas she doesn’t have essentially the most display screen time, she is the movie’s emotional compass – and she or he isn’t performed for laughs. Laeni Geiseler places in an plausible efficiency as a confused, taciturn adolescent who’s having a troublesome sufficient time of issues as it’s, with out this undesirable mind-reading reward.

What Marielle Is aware of is an eloquent metaphor for the surveillance tradition we now have signed off on, however it’s additionally a neat reverse coming of age story – one which forces two adults to lastly develop up. Jagged, high-volume snatches of Beethoven and Schubert string quartets act as chapter dividers and underline the steely, severe spine of a comedy that’s bathed in pale wintry mild.