Alles is liefde

I saw "Alles is Liefde" recently and I liked it. The advertisement for the film is strange..sometimes this film is presented as a pure romantic movie, but most often you'll only see the ruder jokes. As is with the truth sometimes, the film itself lies between those two.

The acting is good. It seemed that Dutch mainstream film left the soap level some years ago. There are a lot of new faces and a number of old ones. Carice van Houten for example, rising star that is close to international stardom, is a great actress that has little trouble with playing totally different roles. In Alles is Liefde, she is simply great.

I will not spoil much about the story, but it starts great with the arrival of Sinterklaas. The mood is just right, the acting just fits and it all feels very real (even if you live far from Amsterdam). The directing seems pretty solid and the sets are good(production is sometimes very weak in dutch cinema).

The acting is good. There are many, and with that I really mean MANY characters that we follow during the movie and they are all so different. We see a working class family, unhappy saleswoman, royalty womanizer, gay couple, mothers that seem confused about this point of their lives and prehaps the greatest of them all; a middle aged man that comes back to Amsterdam to do something about his past and gets famous and pushed around in a situation that is very public and absolutely not for him.

The only thing that I didn't like about this film is the music. Sure, it's pretty good, but there is just a little bit too much of it. It's mostly mainstream music and it's very romantic, but when you use this kind of music on any situation it's kinda loses its power later on.

The rest; great. This movie is fun and romantic. There is enough for anybody, so not many people will be bored while watching this (except the Chuck Norrise-like filmlovers).

Colorful, touching, and very funny! This can be considered as a Dutch version of Love Actually (even the fonts of the credit titles are similar), which is a big compliment to Love Actually. As the stories and situations here are very Dutch (including gay marriage and a vehicle carefully locked to a bridge), I think this film will move Dutch viewers more than the British version did. I know I wanted to cry at the end, but I was there with my girlfriend. Super performances of the all-star cast, all playing the roles they do best. And the movie shows Amsterdam from its most wonderful side as well!

The movie does raise a worrying question though: what will we do when He really dies? My suggestion: we ask Gijs Scholten van Aschat. Any other candidates?

Try to avoid the trailer, which spoils some surprises.

I heared a lot about this movie. I'm not a dutch film lover. But I like movies with Paul de Leeuw in it. He's so wrong, that makes him funny.

But it was valentine's day and I had to buy my wife a present, so I thought why not the limited edition. Did I know that this movie was bad?! The movie is about relationships and how several people are somehow connected to each other. Is this a new concept? No it isn't. The actors and actresses sucked a lot! Wendy van Dijk was very funny in Ushi en Van Dijk, but in this movie she could show us that she cannot act at all.

Even that sucker, Valerio, cannot act. But I knew that years ago when he had his dating show on tmf. That is very pity, but I still don't know why people think that a pretty boy can automatically act. It ain't so! To stand by this statement I will bring up the next thing: Paul the Leeuw is a very good actor, but very underrated. Paul is Like the dutch Robin Williams. I am a huge fan of Robin Williams, he is not an attractive guy, but he can act as the best! He can act comic roles, but also dramatic or even serious.

At the moment in the film where the boyfriend of Paul runs out of his house in the snow to get his bike, there Paul stands with a beautiful smile. That was acting. Great acting is about not saying anything, but saying a lot with your facial impressions. Very well, if the rest of the movie was as good as that one moment, I had liked that movie a lot.

But this movie was not about Paul de Leeuw, there were a lot of other bad actors and actresses in the movie that made this movie (for me) not worth watching a second time. Or at least I'll fast forward it to the moment of Paul in the snow.

Honestly, there aren't many movies from my homecountry that i like, and if i hate one genre; it's sappy romances. This romance is however far from sappy! It uses humor, a grounded Dutch view on every topic, a good dose of sillyness and compelling characters to deliver a heartwarming story, full of important messages. Some cliché, some aren't, and some are plain in-your-face. The use of the Dutch famous holiday Sinterklaas makes it a movie that can be enjoyed with the whole family, although it is riddled with (sometimes not so) subtles innuendo's. There are a few things that maybe confuse foreign viewers, like what the Sinterklaas holiday actually is about. (no it's not santa clause) and little references to Dutch celebrity culture here and there.

One of the best dutch movies i've seen so far. The acting is good, sometimes even excellent. Great work by some unknown actors and actresses. A lot of funny characters played by famous dutch people. The script is uplifting and smart, with some nice twists. Sometimes some obvious connections between the different story lines that are pointed out during the film, but still not overrated or overdone. A lot of humor with a nice combination of love, drama and twisted humor and awareness. A film you must see if you like dutch movies. Good girlfriend-boyfriend material for a night at the cinema, or even to watch with good friends before a night in the town!