Aided by Lucia Zemene's gutsy, funny lead performance, Mari Sanders' debut skips the usual faux-inspirational beats in its story of a young woman adapting to life in a wheelchair.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
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'Stand Up' Courtesy of Loco Films Most able-bodied people don’t know what to say to 23-year-old Vera (Lucia Zemene) in the months following a traffic collision that left her without a leg, but one empty platitude really stands out: A friend suggests that maybe it happened for a reason. Haunted by this thought, she eventually asks a fellow young wheelchair user if he agrees, and he does. “The reason,” he says, “is that a truck crashed into you.” That reply captures the refreshingly direct, no-bullshit tone of Mari Sanders‘ “Stand Up,” a Dutch drama that seeks to cut through the condescending sentimentality that often characterizes portraits of disability on screen, and instead trades in more straightforward truths.
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