Andrea Gets A Divorce

Bluesky

Andrea (Birgit Minichmayr) hasn’t been happy for a long time. She’s still fond of husband Andy (Thomas Stipsits), and no matter what he may assume, she isn’t seeing anyone else. She’s just sick of their living arrangements, and his drinking, and the feeling that her career as a police officer has stalled, that she’s stuck recording traffic offences in a small town which has nothing new to offer her. That night after the birthday party, when he sits, drunk again, behind the wheel of his car, revving the engine, opointing out to her that it’s an offence, just to get her attention, she finally tells him that it’s over; that she wants a divorce. He pleads with her. He makes a litany of promises he’s doubtless made before. It’s not enough. Worried that he’ll try to drive home, she takes his keys and leaves, off to stay with her dad again.

On the way home, everything is turned upside down when, momentarily distracted, Andrea hits Andy as he staggers along the road. It’s immediately fatal. Panicked, she gets into her car and drives away.

Josef Hader’s oddly charming, offbeat indie film throws up one complicating factor after another as Andrea tries to get on with her life, yet to emotionally process what has happened. She’s continually presented with new reasons to feel guilty, even as events conspire to make it harder for her to tell the truth about what happened. When somebody else is identified as having hit Andy whilst he was ‘lying down’ in the road, the pressure might seem to be off, but the more she learns about him, the more she feels for the tragedy of his situation. He, believing that he has killed her husband, is discomfited by her overtures, but a strange sort of friendship gradually forms between them nonetheless.

Although it could easily have been played as a farce, it’s friendship and human feeling that is the key to this film. Andrea’s decision to flee the scene, which might easily be attributed to shock, is balanced by her efforts to care for others in the aftermath. The townspeople are quick to denigrate others, but when in direct contact they are generally supportive. Again and again, people have the opportunity to hurt or exploit one another but make a different choice.

The comedy structured around this is gentle but well observed and very funny. Sometimes it verges on the absurd. Hader has a deep understanding of small town life, and his framing choices add character to the locale, sometimes serving as a reminder of the strangeness of the situation at times when Minichmayr is deep in character. He makes good use of the largely flat landscape around the town to put characters in situations where they have no point of focus but one another. The awkwardness of these moments allows us to see them as they are, without the framework of social convention to hide behind.

It’s easy to be lulled by the comedy and the evolving drama, but this is a capable, multi-skilled cast, and when the time comes, the film delivers intense emotion. Though the English language title might be taken as a joke, it’s also an invitation to compare the processes of bereavement and divorce, and many who have gone through the latter will relate. The sudden absence of a familiar person always requires a difficult adjustment. Andrea will have to face more than just her guilt before she can see a clear road into the future.