Like Tears in Rain (2024) Review

Like Tears in Rain (2024) Review

All his life, charismatic and mysterious actor Rutger Hauer kept the outside world at arm’s length. Through private, never-before-seen footage, his goddaughter Sanna Fabery de Jonge helms a fascinating new feature documentary that reveals his life behind the scenes.

The legacy of actor Rutger Hauer, who died in 2019, is undisputed. Despite his iconic roles in BLADE RUNNER and THE HITCHER, and with more than 170 acting credits to his name, including ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR, BATMAN BEGINS and SIN CITY, there is only a very small group of people who truly knew the Dutch actor. Sanna Fabery de Jonge delves into Hauer’s personal archive to reveal the real person behind the world-famous actor.

Hauer documented his entire life on film, resulting in countless videos shot in Friesland, on his boat and in his campervan, as well as behind-the-scenes on movie sets, where we witness his unconditional love for his wife Ineke and his friends. Through conversations with his family, friends and collaborators including Whoopi Goldberg, Paul Verhoeven, Vincent D’Onofrio, Miranda Richardson, Robert Rodriguez, Mickey Rourke and Anton Corbijn, we see the person behind Rutger Hauer’s charismatic yet elusive character.

LIKE TEARS IN RAIN is an amiable documentary that maintains an affectionate warm and fuzzy vibe throughout. It paints a picture of the late Rutger Hauer as being an intensely private man who enjoyed his alone time as much as he enjoyed any time spent with loved ones.

Hauer’s defining cinematic moment came with the release of Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic BLADE RUNNER and from that point on he was often typecast as the villain, most notably in 1985’s THE HITCHER. Hauer attempted to break from type by playing the romantic lead in director Richard Donner’s LADYHAWKE however as much as he welcomed the opportunity to play a good guy alas it was not to be and Hauer was soon back to playing the bad guy.

There’s arguably not much here that is fresh but what there is makes for a heartfelt and effective love letter to an actor who had screen presence in abundance and was much loved by film fans and his fellow actors alike.

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Like Tears in Rain premieres on 10 March exclusively on Viaplay available in the UK as an Amazon Prime Video Channels add on