De storm

I looked forward to this movie, because of the true story of the Storm in 1953. I was very disappointed. The flood came immediately in the beginning, you didn't even know the characters yet. The flooding itself was good to see. However, the main character Julia was very unlikeable and the acting was terrible. There was no emotion in her acting, even though her sisters and mother were dead and here baby was missing. The same look for the hole movie. The storyline was really unbelievable and the end.. well, you should see it to believe how terrible it is. The characters were in the water for a long time, that would not have been possible because of the temperature of the water. Maybe it was because I had too high expectations, but as i said, I was really disappointed.

A real-world tragedy deserves a respectful recounting of events. But this movie opted to reïmagine the dramatic Christmas flood of 1953 in an absurd fictional storyline where the plot and the characters are so shallow you start wondering what the problem is. De Storm fails as a historical film, fails as a drama and fails as a thriller.

The film promotes the dated idea that "a woman needs a man no matter how strong she is". Additionally, it praises idiotic actions of stupidity as "heroic rescue attempts". None of the actors managed to deliver their lines with any level of truth. And I would not have been able to muster the two stars I rated it if the special effects hadn't been this decent.

De Storm, in essence, is an insult to the victims of the flood and a disgrace to Dutch filmmaking. Tedious, disastrously dated and offending.

56 years after the devastating 'big flood' of 1953 the tragedy finally makes it to to the big screen. After a wait this long it's even more a shame that such a big event in Dutch history turned out to be such a disappointing movie. Where other movies, like for instance Titanic, successfully use a personal drama as a metaphor for the bigger picture, 'De Storm' gets lost in a totally unrealistic and very one dimensional story about a woman losing her baby. The movie ends up almost ignoring the tragedy all those other thousands of people where facing during this flood. The characters in this movie aren't properly introduced so as a spectator you feel no connection at all with the leading roles. The dialogs are very poor and the acting, especially from leading lady Sylvia Hoeks, is a disgrace!!!

Just do yourself a favor and avoid this movie

It is good to refresh yourself on this century's Dutch cinema, and this beautifully and well constructed film on the flood disaster of 1953 is well worth watching. To be honest I was expecting more of a disaster spectacle, but instead I saw a film about grief and the search for a missing child. The flood itself is expertly filmed, using I think original footage and as the Dutch are masters of documentary the film did not fail on this level. Sylvia Hoeks gives a perfect performance as the mother searching the follow day among the wreckage for the infant she lost. Zeeland is or was a very pious part of Holland and prejudices against anyone who went or go against the ' norm ', based mainly on religion, are considered outcasts, even in their families, and this mother has an illegitimate child. In her search for the child she is joined up by the errant father's brother, and the love story that ensues is deeply moving. No spoilers but to mention the last part of the film left me feeling desolate., and rightly so. The tone of the film catches every nuance of loss and the tragedy of loss and as I said the grief element is in my opinion at the heart of the film. This should not put any viewer off from watching this superbly crafted piece of cinema, and the catharsis that I felt after it was over was well worth experiencing. I did not find fault with the dedicated acting, nor the direction and Sylvia Hoeks gives, and I repeat, a performance above criticism, and every shift of emotion or sudden happiness shows on her beautiful face. I am not sure if this masterful work has been seen elsewhere, and if not, why not ? As the subject matter is timeless, encapsulating a terrible moment in 20th C. History it will always be relevant especially in this era of brutal weather changes. I urge viewers to hunt this film down, and there is English subtitles on the Dutch DVD release. Is it a great film ? I think so, and will watch it many times, as it gives so much to humanity and what it should be at its best.

If you had red the book, you do not want to watch this film. It is a huge disappointment in comparing to the detailed description of the book. I doesn't come close to the (much better) storylines and the feeling they want to bring over. Overall bad acting, no emotions noticeable, very very fast told, unbelievable how they made such a good book to such a horrible movie.