Broken lives and dreams

Rating: 8/10 (8 March 2004)

Hedwig, with no father and a malcontent mother, is a good kid who grows up being abused and deserted by friends and lovers. Even when the lad had a seemingly loving relationship there was still a veneer of ugly horror. Using odd photography and sets Mitchell explains via flashback, songs and monologues Hedwig's life from German childhood to traveling rocker for a chain of seedy nightclubs. Mitchell did a good job vocalizing the strange, demented, repulsive tunes full of pain and anger: he came across nicely as the cross dressing freak just a notch under ultra-freak Marilyn Manson. His anger and hurt over the betrayal of a close friend was the crux of the film, yet there wasn't really that much interplay between the 2 characters. Often as Hedwig segues back and forth through time I wondered how much was reality and what was simply his own fantasies. Perhaps he was merely a devil oriented, insane homosexual. Really excellent picture.