La reunión

It's a not so uncommon movie subject, this one about reunions which become life-changing drama. But Anna Odel's version is shakening. She meets her old class after 20 years and gives a speech. It's about hierarchies, power, games and one of the greatest sadist joys: Falsely making somebody believe you're in love with her.

The first half of the film tells about the party, which is a humiliating disaster for Anna. In the second part, she confronts some persons from the class. What's the greatest bully victory? Making someone feel she wasn't bullied at all.

It's not a perfect film, but one you will remember if you have any experience at all of hierarchies in school and other places.

The first half is great, although Anna Odells personality and shaky acting makes even me want to bully her. The second half is just a waste of time, with some kind of pseudo-documentary, "The Office" style. The film more or less only consists of a camera shooting close-ups of people so it is not a movie for those expecting any grand scenes or brilliant camera technique. Anna Odells acting is crap so why she won a price for best actress is astounding.

The guys playing the bullies, though, has acting skills: They were really good. It is a pity that most Movie Awards has one price for "Best male" and one for "Best female". Stupid really. Because if the two best actors are of the same sex then one of the prices, that should rightfully have gone to them, goes to someone else (with the right sex), even if this someone else is crap. As in this case.

Starting out, I liked this movie's beginnings, with a reunion from hell unfolding like a scene in a play, in the same vein of Thomas Vinterberg's "Festen". However, as the film progresses, it becomes clear that the directors aim is not to create drama or a slice of life drama-documentary, but rather an attempt of cold, dialectic dissection between the bully(s) and the bullied.

The film only marginally succeeds at this, and the resolution is prehaps all too unsatisfying as a film seen in the cinema. It feels like a vanity project. The storytelling is self righteous and self-obsessed, the director being the main character of the film; she's surrounded by the 'actors' in her fake reimagination of a school reunion. Here her own performance isn't exactly giving us much to go on, and her backstory is only referred to sporadically, giving us little chance to sympathise. The other cast members play well enough, but they too, seem trapped by material that is too narrowly focused on analyzing, rather than showing the true consequences of bullying and abuse in institutions.

Shame for a film with a good start to fail so miserably in its execution.

It's not easy to understand why this movie has gotten the raving reviews that it has - not that it's a badly played/performed one - more that it's a movie without a real context/goal. Anna Odell directs and stars in a fictional movie that tells us how a class re-union of hers _might_ have become, if she'd gotten invited to it in the beginning! She isn't invited, and being bullied in school when she was a kid/teenager, this is her way of getting some late kind of revenge. Anna wants to show this movie to hear real former classmates to see their reactions. Their reactions is probably what you'd expect - some ppl just doesn't claim to recognize the picture that Anna has of her childhood, and those who do - doesn't really have anything to say to Anna that eases her pain/helps her understanding. Since the Movie doesn't really address the problems with bullies in schools, or gives some kind of understanding _why_ she couldn't have handled this pain of hers several years ago already, then the Movie kinda falls flat. If you're into Movies, then you'd probably can claim that it's artistic/groundbreaking and showing us something we haven't seen Before. For me, it's just a movie that shows a quite sad/disturbing side of Anna, we cannot really emphatize with her - cause she's behaving quite nonrational throughout the entire history. The Movie leads nowhere, gives no real answers to any question, and makes you wonder "what have I just seen, what was the point with it all" rather than giving you this "A-ha"-experience, that I suppose was her purpose of the film. If you're a cineast, you might like this movie still because of it's way of being 'different' - but if you're like me, like most ppl going to a movie - a regular joe that isn't a cineast, but someone that wants to get amused or getting something to think of - then you'd probably wonder why the heck this movie has gotten the good reviews that it has.

So this is a revenge flick basically. But instead of blood and gore, you'll get awkward scenes with the antagonist and the protagonists. It kind of feels like when people get in their mid 30s and 50s they completely forget how children think and act. And all bullying is because the children are malevolent and evil.

This is one of those movies where it's not clear if the main character is really the hero, or if she is actually the villain. Using her newfound power -she now being a successful filmmaker. To take revenge on people that had unintentionally hurt her in the past.

The movie is so incredibly passive aggressive it's just mind blowing. And the storytelling is so incredibly one sided - her perspective of all the events that were bad in her childhood. She has zero empathy for her classmates as an adult, which is probably why she had no friends as a child.

But because this movie is about bullying, everyone must rate it super high. It deserves 3 stars out of 10, and that's for successful awkward scenes.