A love story where the newly found takes meanings, this film is probably best understood (though I hope I'm wrong) by "new" Germans, particularly former East Germans, and those interested in the long "lost" beautiful areas of the former east.
Perhaps the most beautiful area of the former East is the "Saxon Switzerland" region (roughly between Dresden and the Czech border). There are beautiful mountains, well preserved spa towns nestled among mountains, and strange rock formations above the Elbe River which snakes through the area.
In the film, a recently widowed man from the densely populated west (Cologne) decides to start a new life in this sparsely populated of Saxony in southeastern Germany. The plot is pretty simple, and sadly cliché ridden. The dosage of the "Ostalgie" (nostalgia for the "good aspects" of East Germany, popular in some parts of Germany, and crucial in the success of recent films like "Good bye Lenin" are thrown in almost as an insurance policy for the picture's shot at success.
Though the "Ostalgie" elements are not really forced, they do add credit to the film's name "New Found Land," as the east is still a newly found land for most former West Germans. The area which the film makers picked is arguably the most beautiful, most picturesque and least populated of crowded, green obsessed Germans, another good calculated commercial move.
But the themes are too overtly "newly found." The area is newly found. Characters find new lives, new loves, new jobs, new objectives. It's all too obvious. There is also an "Ostalgie" inspired subplot, one of revenge against unfair actions by former members of the regime, which seems out of place and is unrealistic.
As much as I like German cinema, German landscapes, and am particularly fascinated by Reunification and "Ostalgie," I must say this is not one of the best films around if you are going to see a "new" German film. And face it, few people (particularly Germans) attend German films, unless they are the Hollywood like action and suspense films, or quality films about their history, which now includes "Ostalgie."
So, if you're like most, I would advise you to see another "current" German film like GOOD BYE LENIN, GANZ & GAR, THE EXPERIMENT, EIERDIEBE, FUHRER EX,...ANGST, DEVOT - all films currently being released worldwide at Film festivals and art houses, though most are not really art films -their "art" is that they are spoken in English!
RED AND BLUE with the amazing Hannelore Elsner is another good one (that one IS somewhat artsy, and rather a woman´s movie, though I am a man and enjoyed it thoroughly). AND don't miss LIGHTS, praised by some as the best German movie of 2002/3, about the the goings on in the other Frankfurt(an Oder), on the German/Polish border, soon to be almost redundant as Poland joins the EU.
What I mean is, this being an "International" Film site and most people willing to see only a few films from any given country, my recommendation is to skip this one and see some of these other ones, which, don't just take it from me, have been highly successful with the critics and the public.
I have seen all the above titles. At two different festivals. So, they will often come in a package as "New German Cinema" or something of the sort. I enjoyed this film very much, but I love German history and culture.
If you're not particularly enthralled by Germany, you should see one or a few of the best German films of the last year and a half. And there have been quite a few. Again, see my list above. Sadly, I can't say this is one of them.
