Ik ook van jou

From 2002 on Dutch cinema finally got better again. This movie is still part- and a schoolbook example of the bad period of Dutch cinema.

The story is needlessly told in flashback style. All of the 'present' sequences set in France are completely redundant and add nothing to the story, emotions or power. For some reason European filmmakers often find it necessary to tell the story not chronological. I never understood why, or what the appeal of it is.

The story self also isn't exactly the greatest. It isn't always clear were the movie is trying to go to and what it tries to tell. The story of a young unexperienced boy falling in love with a wild young girl, who later turns out to be quite psychotic might sound good enough on paper and even shows some parallels to Paul Verhoeven's "Turks fruit", to which this movie often was compared to before and at the time of its release. However the end result is far from comparable. The story fails to capture the right emotions, which is also due to the unimaginative performances from the actors. The way the story is told also makes the movie far from always interesting or compelling. I lost interest for this movie at about 40 minutes through the movie.

At the time this movie was made, both Antonie Kamerling and Angela Schijf were promising rising stars, with great potential and ambitions but both their careers have pretty much dried up by now. Angela Schijf seems to give her family more attention than her career (that is not a bad thing of course), while Antonie Kamerling tried to start a career in Hollywood. He never got any further than playing some small bit parts in 2 Renny Harlin flops. To be honest I'm not surprised. It's not that he is a bad actor and he certainly has got the right looks but his English just isn't good enough, to put it mildly. Just listen to him speaking English in the beginning of this movie and you'll understand what I mean. They are really not bad actors but for some reason it doesn't show in this movie. It's probably also due to the poor dialog. I still kind of liked Beau van Erven Dorens. He's been criticized a lot but his acting seems very natural. He always keeps the characters close to who he self is.

It by no means is one of the worst movies ever made but it's not exactly one I would recommend either. Bad and uninteresting storytelling makes this a bad movie.

4/10

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When "Ik ook van jou" was released on dvd, I ran to the videostore to rent it. Having read the book by Ronald Giphart (I've read all of his books) I really wanted to see what they had made of it.

Sadly, the fun that is present in the book is nowhere to be found in the movie. What remains is the sad story of a romance between our protagonist and his highly disturbed girlfriend.

Having said that, "Ik ook van jou" makes for an entertaining night of television, just don't expect to much. Maybe the next adaptation of a Ronald Giphart novel will do better (Phileine zegt sorry).

I tried to see this movie on the first night showing. The show in the city I live in was sold out. "This must be really something", I thought. I now expect that most people leaving the theater that night must have had the same though as I have now, after seeing the movie on DVD: "highly overrated; not living up to it's expectations". I didn't read the book, have to be honest about that. From what I've read, the book's author, Mr Giphart, wasn't really pleased with the movie either. Some remarks: - the plot is too clear; I knew how it would end before the movie was half on it's way - not very well acting from Ms Schijf and Mr Kamerling. The latter is also the narrator and I'm not sure whether it's intended this way, but he's reading lines and that just sounds horrible. The small part of Mr Van Erven Dorens is ok. He's not that good of an actor, but he plays an over the top student-like ("studentikoos" in Dutch) student, in which he succeeds to make him student-like...quite realistic whether you like it or not.

I wouldn't advise this movie to my friends; if it is on tv and you're sure there's nothing else on...well, it's ok to watch it, I guess. Nothing more, nothing less. A 4,5 out of 10

Wow, A very good movie!!! The movie may start a little slow but when the story about the impossible love between Reza and Eric starts you just get suck in sooo deep, you won't be able to get your eyes from the screen!!!

See it! Angela Schijf is very good! The movie about Reza's twisted character and the love Eric feels for her, the troubles that comes with it and the love he gets from it, it's amazing!

this movie was so incredibly bad. i haven't read the book, but i assume it was probably very good, as giphart usually is a great writer... but this movie... there was not one single highlight. the storyline was badly laid out, none of the characters had any depth whatsoever. all reza was, was insanity and sex. she shows some emotion but there isn't any depth to the emotion...

there seems to be no connections between events, it's all so jaggedly put together. maybe some good acting could have balanced out the bad storyline, but unfortunately the actors were horrible as well. antonie kamerling's narration sounded like he was doing an imitation of bert (bert & ernie) from sesame street!! angela schijf had her alright moments, but overall she was just over-acting. which can be said also for beau whatever-his-last-name-is.

every so often the audience was confronted with 'symbolic' changes in the scenery ( ie lack of color after the relationship with reza is over, the dead guinea pig) that are so painfully obvious. this movie is trying to be artsy and intelligent when it simply isnt capable of being so.

they could have done something great with the story... too bad they f*ck*d it up so thoroughly!!