Rating: 3 stars out 5
Imagine if we had rules that helped us while we grew up and dealt with the struggles of puberty… Rules that help make the process easier and are adaptable to whatever struggle that each individual is dealing with. A set for teenagers who are dealing with divorce, another for a parent who is an alcoholic, another for a teenager in a Lolita relationship. Who’s to say that we would actually follow rules? We often say. “Rules are made to be broken” and maybe that would cause even more heartache and turmoil.
Mia and Mirjam are 14 years old and trying to adjust to their life as teenagers. While Mirjam has dived head first into the life of an adult by dating a recently divorced man with two kids, Mia struggles to separate her whimsical fantasies from her own desires to live the same life as Mirjam.
Mia is the character that is easy to relate to. She’s justifiably worried about her best friend while wondering why she hasn’t received the same attention as her aforementioned friend. Mia is the character that is usually relegated to the sidekick best friend in most rom-com’s but she has now found her voice. Her anger, her curiosity, and her insecurities are easily projected and you feel every ounce of it all. She is a somewhat realistic portrayal of any 14 year old girl and is a decent role for girls to relate to.
While Mia is still adjusting, Mirjam has taken her new found maturity to a new level. Her secret affair with Per who is a single, 40 year old man with two kids leaves her jaded and given a false sense of superiority to her friend Mia and Karl. Mirjam is a one-dimensional character with her self-absorbed attitude and her need to be something that she isn’t. It’s hard to love her, but it’s also hard to hate her as well. Mirjam is simply there with her relationship playing as troublesome background noise of the entire film.
There Should Be Rules may not be contending for any critical acclaims but it is an indie film that has potential. The film could have stood on its on without the need for a Lolita relationship to show the dichomity between the two girls. Other plot ideas could been used without the overused and controversial Lolita aspect added. However, this is Linda-Maria Birbec’s first time directing and filming a movie from a story that she has envisioned for more than 10 years. Birbec is still learning and her first film wasn’t going to be perfect and she knows that growing up should have some rules.