In November 1999, the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle made national news, both for the carnival-like tone of some of the massive attendant protests, and for the city's violent police reaction. A few years' worth of perspective later, politically savvy movie-goers can probably guess their reaction to the German/Austrian co-production The Edukators based on their feelings about Seattle—not so much the protestors' exact message as their methods and ideals. Those who approved will at least have reason to give the film a chance, while those who didn't may feel they've been here before.
First seen forcing his way into a shoe store, pushing anti-sweatshop leaflets on shoppers, and shouting statistics as security hustles him out, Good Bye Lenin! star Daniel Brühl plays an angry young man who talks about revolution as though his generation invented the concept, and will inevitably see it through. When he isn't denouncing the corrupt bourgeoisie in public, he and longtime friend Stipe Erceg undermine upper-class complacency by breaking into mansions to rearrange the furniture and leave behind slogans like "Your days of plenty are numbered" and "You have too much money." They sign their missives "The Edukators," keeping their identities a guarded secret.
But when Brühl gets roped into spending time with Erceg's girlfriend (Julia Jentsch) in Erceg's absence, he starts falling for her in spite of his strong loyalty to his friend, and he eventually lets her in on the secret. Dealing with eviction, a miserable job, and a deep debt to a wealthy man (Burghart Klaußner) whose Mercedes she destroyed, Jentsch eagerly buys into the Edukators stunt as a way to blow off her increasingly high-pressured steam, and she bullies Brühl into pulling it on Klaußner, with disastrous results.
So long as it's leaning on plot-twist tension or Brühl and Jentsch's considerable youthful charm and chemistry, The Edukators chugs along, looking grainy and a bit labored, but still intense, with an appealing Dogme-like visual and emotional rawness. (Brühl, always a winning presence, falls in love like his generation invented that concept, too.) But whenever it delves into politics, it drags unforgivably. All three principals are sincere but undereducated, and they spend far too much time arguing their cause solely through broad generalization, cliché, and half-baked hyperbole. As their opposition, Klaußner doesn't do any better. Much of the movie's latter half crawls through a dreary, simplistic "Do not"/ "Do too" debate that accomplishes nothing except poking a few straw men. The film's daring, honest ending helps redeem the uneven drama, but the road there may occasionally try the patience of even the most sympathetic armchair revolutionaries.