Netflix has made serious noise this year with hit movies and shows like Extraction, The Old Guard, Enola Holmes, Ratched, Emily In Paris etc. With majority of their content doing well globally, Netflix has gained people’s trust in foreign countries as well. Netflix has become a global brand and keeps on releasing content from everywhere. There latest upcoming offering is the Austrian movie titled “What We Wanted“.
The movie is based on critical issues of fertility which is faced by many couples all over the world and by the trailer it seems that they have captured the whole thing very beautifully.
What We Wanted tells the story of a couple, Alice and Niklas who have been together for a long time, now they are trying for a baby but are not succeeding. They have been through various clinics and procedures but even after their fourth trial they are unable to conceive. This creates a pressure in their relationship. The doctor asks them to get their mind off from the disappointment and clear things between them by going to a vacation.
Alice and Niklas go to a vacation near the beach and there they meet another couple who unlike them are very cheerful and full of energy. Plus they have a kid named David. This disappoints the couple as they wanted to clear their mind off kids. But as the trip progresses they Alice finds that David is always subdued and reserved, later they find out that David was an unplanned child and this has been pointed to him since his childhood which has created a void in his mind. Imagine your own parents telling you that you weren’t supposed to be born and happened by mistake.
The movie delves deep into the emotions of the couple as their continuos failure of getting pregnant puts a strain in their relationship as they start to become distant from each other. Niklas suggests Alice for adoption but she refuses blatantly claiming that she only wants their true child and no other’s.
But after seeing the condition of David, and how unhappy he has been throughout his whole life, this creates a thought in their mind. What happens next can be seen when the movie releases.
“What We Wanted”, is a brave step in focusing on several critical areas of our society with just one film. Firstly it talks about how not being able to get pregnant even after trying puts a disastrous toll to any couple, no matter how happy they are, the movie shows how eventually due to lack of communication the couple drifts apart.
Second issues is the continuous lack of gratitude towards people, which in the movie’s case is David’s parents who treat him like a burden just because he was unplanned. This creates pressure and a sense of negligence in a child’s mind.
Thirdly, the issue which the movie aims at is adoption. One can and should go for adoption if they are not successful in conceiving. Instead of sulking and wanting a child of their own, a couple could adopt a baby and give him a better life which in the movie’s case David is struggling with and Alice finds David like herself as they both feel that they are losers.
What We Wanted’s trailer has already garnered audience’s attention and if that’s not enough, the movie has already been nominated as Austria’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at Academy Awards 2021.
The movie will be available to stream on Netflix as it released worldwide on 11th November 2020.