The environment of Into the Wind helps make the picture feel as wonderful as it does, but these young lovers make it sing.
At their core, many dramas with teenage love stories struggle to stay grounded and avoid becoming soapy, but Into the Wind avoids all of these pitfalls. It juggles issues of sorrow, identity, and mental health fairly beautifully, depicting its people and their anguish with meticulous precision. It also doesn’t let things get too serious; there’s some heartbreak, but there’s also a joyful ending, one we see coming yet can’t help but love. Despite its obvious plot and ending, Into the Wind seems rewarding.
During a family vacation in Into the Wind, an affluent young woman on track to medical school and following in her father’s footsteps begins to doubt everything. Later she befriends a worker from a hotel who helped her regain an appreciation of life and trust in others. So is this Polish drama worth your time? Let’s find out.
Ania (Sonia Mietielica) and her family are about to go on their yearly holiday. They pass by a beat-up orange van packed with raucous young people on their way there, and one young man catches Ania’s eye. She grins shyly and looks away, but it appears to affect her. Ania, who was mourning over her mother’s departure 5 years ago, and her father, Andre (Marcin Perchu), is terrified that she would relapse into the crippling melancholy that formerly tormented her.
At the hotel, the family – including Ania’s stepmother and baby brother – gathers with their close friends, a couple, and their son, Kuba, whom Ania despises. Ania’s father informs them that she has been accepted to medical school and will likely follow in his footsteps, but she expresses reservations. Ania goes to a yoga class with her stepmother one day to get out and about. Still, she ends up in a kitesurfing lesson with the lad from the van after the session.
Ania is preoccupied with the boy, whose name she discovers is Michal (Jakub Sasak). She spends an evening on the beach with his buddy group and begins to fall for him. Still, when she sees him being intimate with another girl the next day, she closes down and retreats to her room for days at a time. Andre eventually convinces her to come out for dinner one night, which leads to her uncovering the truth – Michal was just fooling around with a buddy.
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They reunite and fall in love hard and fast, spending their days and nights together as Ania finally learns to (literally and metaphorically) let her hair down and enjoy life again. With family conflict on the horizon, her future on the horizon, and the end of the summer approaching, Ania begins to rethink what she truly wants her life to look like – and whether Michal fits into her plans.
Sonia Mietielica is a standout in this performance. She carries the weight of Into the Wind while dealing with loss, pain, and coming of age. While her demeanor is normally understated, a lot is going on behind her eyes and behind each tiny smirk. So often, in similar circumstances, the girl from the world of prosperity is more difficult to warm to. Yet, Mietelica’s Ania quickly captures your heart, despite her tight ponytail and austere, occasionally hostile demeanor.
There’s a lot left unsaid in Into the Wind, but her anguish and passion are palpable in the quiet times she spends with Michal and her father. Miecielica simply has that quality.
Like so many of Netflix’s foreign, teenage loves, Into the Wind takes its time telling its narrative. There aren’t many frills or efforts to reinvent the wheel, yet it works. The picture has a dreamy, pleasant aspect. This genuineness rings true even when certain sequences linger too long or seem needless. We’ve all heard the story: a tightly wound, unhappy affluent girl falls for the free-spirited hotel employee who spends his leisure time windsurfing and partying on the beach with his pals.
But the connection between Sonia Mietielica and Jakub Sasak is intense; you can’t take your eyes off them. We know we’re in for a treat the instant their eyes contact.
The environment of Into the Wind helps make the picture feel as wonderful as it does, but these young lovers make it sing.
At their core, many dramas with teenage love stories struggle to stay grounded and avoid becoming soapy, but Into the Wind avoids all of these pitfalls. It juggles issues of sorrow, identity, and mental health fairly beautifully, depicting its people and their anguish with meticulous precision. It also doesn’t let things get too serious; there’s some heartbreak, but there’s also a joyful ending, one we see coming yet can’t help but love. Despite its obvious plot and ending, Into the Wind seems rewarding.
