Zus & zo

Even in The Netherlands, Dutch movies hardly ever get the attention and number of viewers as movies from the United States. I don't know what the box office results for 'Zus & zo' finally will be. But it is very likely that the American remake (RCV bought the rights) of this movie will be more successful than the Dutch original.

This is unjust. 'Zus & zo' is a romantic comedy, with a soap like story-line, and is very funny, yet moving - and thus nothing like a soap at all. The timing of the actors - very important for a comedy - is good, as most actors know each other from the same theater company. Every character - both male and female - gets it's share of scepsis by sharp observation of their manners, yet the director managed to prevent over-the-top acting.

'Zus & zo' provides a real life mirror for everyone. Choose your own character to take 'example' from: one of the three jealous sisters in their thirties, not satisfied with their lives, but also not able to change it. Or one of the husbands, one addicted to women, or the other being a doormat suffering under his wife's hospitality for just about every one who needs help. Or the timid gay brother, marrying a woman (!) to inherit his parents summer residence in Portugal. Or the optimist (opportunist?) bride-to-be Bo, much more self-confident than the three sisters and apparently without a weak point.

Or just enjoy this tragi-comic portrait of a slightly derailed family.

In the first 10 minutes: "Oh no, our gay brother is getting married to a girl just to inherit daddy's hotel in Portugal!"

Half an hour later: "Oh no, our gay brother is getting married to a girl just to inherit daddy's hotel in Portugal!"

An hour later: "Oh no, our gay brother is getting married to a girl just to inherit daddy's hotel in Portugal!"

And finally in the last half hour they actually do something about it, but I wasn't interested anymore. The rest of the film is filled with the life of the sisters themselves. But personally I thought all of them were quite annoying, so I couldn't have cared less. And that ol' Dutch provocative sex comes through as well. Filmmakers don't seem to notice the majority of the Dutch saying they're getting pretty fed up with all that.

I have no idea why this film was nominated for an Oscar, since it has very little interesting to offer. "Character" which won an Oscar before was absolutely worth it. See 'm both and see the difference.

"Zus & Zo" is all about three adult sisters who conspire to thwart their gay brother's forthcoming wedding thus preventing him from inheriting a beautiful hotel on the Portuguese coast. Their late patriarch wanted his gay son to go "straight", so he left the hotel to him if he married. However, the bro wants to acquire the hotel with a marriage of convenience so he can sell it to pay for transsexual surgery - something the distaff want to prevent each for their own selfish reasons. This Dutch flick gets busy and stays busy with nonstop prattling about the "this and that" (zus and zo) of the family, the bro, the hotel, and miscellaneous side plots making it a beautifully filmed and wonderfully cast dialogue-intensive subtitlefest for those who don't spekadalanguage. Mildly amusing, sometimes sentimental, occasionally poignant, always enjoyable, and incessantly yappy, "Zus & Zo" is just too much reading for too little payoff. (B-)

this movie is about a gay guy, Nino and his upcoming wedding, consisting of his 3 deranged sisters, his fake fiancée Bo, his ex-boyfriend Felix and a range of oddball characters. the plot centres more on the mess-uped lives of the 3 sisters and Nino himself. what strikes me as senseless, is that Felix, a gay man willing got back to his ex-boyfriend who would be undergoing sex change to become a woman. i am confused, is he gay or not? and why would a gay man want to have sex with a woman? as a straight man, i would never ever want to have sex with my wife or girlfriend after she have changed sex to become a man. is Nino a man or woman? the story plot is very hazy and jumbled up. all in all the characters are made to look like their lives revolve around sex and nothing much else.

I had promised myself to see every Dutch movie there is, after seeing the wonderful "Spoorloos" and "Soldaat Van Oranje". Zus & Zo came up as the first Dutch movie I found on DVD with English subtitles, and I couldn't miss it. Well, good thing I didn't. I enjoyed every single frame of it. It's really light, yet close to being a masterpiece. It's not the least bit surprising that this movie was nominated for an Academy Award, it's really great. By the way, I don't want to mislead anyone: It has absolutely nothing to do with the two movies in question, it's 100% different. I just mean it's *almost* as fantastic as they are.

Zus & Zo is not exactly about gays, nor is it about family hardships; it's mostly about feelings and true love. The pure feelings of two men for each other, and the not so pure feelings of 3+1* women for money.(*One of the women is a little more "innocent"; the sisters, however, are not quite that pleasant.*) But the ending comes such that you do not end up hating the women in question. That's for me to say, the rest is for you to watch. And DO watch it, you won't be disappointed. I repeat: It's not a movie for gays, I liked it very much as a straight guy. And Monique Hendrickx is a goddess. I'll marry her when I grow up ;-) I just had to add that!

8.5 out of 10 for Zus & Zo.