Young Werther is a witless comedy, which is awkward considering the production deems itself as a slick flick.

While I can’t comment on whether Jose Lourenço’s feature-length filmmaking debut is faithful to its source material (the 1774 novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Johann Wolfgang Goethe), I can relay to my readers what Young Werther reminded me of. Werther (Douglas Booth of Netflix’s The Dirt), someone who considers himself  to be a noble cosmopolitan and self-appointed leader, is reminiscent of other unconventional rule-breakers like Michael Cera’s Nick Twisp from Youth in Revolt and Anton Yelchin as the titular teen Charlie Bartlett. Those referenced performances took some time to warm up to because of how those loners were written to be smarter than everyone else in the room. Those characters, however, were consistently referred to as weirdos on the fringe and benefited from their own goals to elevate themselves – Twisp using a “bad boy” personality to win over a local crush, and Bartlett finding his own coming-of-age as the peer therapist.

In Young Werther, there’s a fundamental issue with how Lourenço and Booth convey this character. From start to finish, Werther is supposed to be the unwavering anchor of sophistication. He inconveniences friends and family with his stubbornness, and he’s constantly blinded by his own persuasiveness. He falls in love at first sight with a bold Torontonian named Charlotte (Alison Pill of Scott Pilgrim fame as well as All My Puny Sorrows), and proceeds to make it his priority to convince her that he’s Mr. Right. After finding out she’s engaged to a stable albeit distracted lawyer (The Swearing Jar’s Patrick J. Adams), Werther becomes more determined to be a swing vote for Charlotte’s upcoming marriage.

For the viewer, Werther is infuriating and our disdain grows when his bad behaviour isn’t acknowledged but rather accepted. When people become hip to his ways, it’s a collective that arrives too late and feels contrived by Lourenço’s screenplay. Up until then, though, the movie is a pushy rom-com that, like Werther, wants to manipulate the audience into finding it odd and endearing. And, dare I say, sexy? A film hasn’t oversold the Toronto nightlife this hard since Warren P. Sonoda’s Textuality. There’s so much attention on dressing up Toronto that the city loses its identity. As opposed to Matt and Mara, a movie that makes the audience want to explore local spots with its leads.

Young Werther had the intent of being light entertainment but, instead, is a smug drag that stresses out the audience.

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Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie