Alle tijd

Alle tijd (2011) is a Dutch film shown in the United States with the title Time to Spare. The movie was written and directed by Job Gosschalk.

This is an interesting film, although somewhat melodramatic. Paul de Leeuw plays Maarten, a middle-aged gay man who is suffering from empty nest syndrome. In this case, the person leaving the nest is not his daughter, but his younger sister Molly (Karina Smulders). Their parents are dead, so Maarten's relationship to Molly is more like a father than a brother.

The film has two plot lines. One is Molly's inability to choose between two men, both of whom she says she loves. The other is Maarten's realization that he can now have a long-term relationship with a gay man. (He didn't--and doesn't--feel comfortable living with another man when Molly is in the home.)

The two actors are both excellent. It's not their fault that the plot is soggy and somewhat unbelievable. They work with what they have, and they work well. However, I thought the best actor in the movie was Lineke Rijxman as Reina, the loyal family friend that every family needs.

I don't think this is a film worth seeking out. However, if you're at a film festival, and this movie is playing, it would be reasonable to walk into the theater and watch it.

Time to Spare was shown at the Little Theatre as part of the exemplary ImageOut--the Rochester LGBT Film & Video Festival.

This at first sight already obviously is one big melodramatic movie but that doesn't always necessarily has to be a bad thing of course. There are still good melodrama's that work with all of their characters, emotions and dramatic developments but I'm afraid that this movie just isn't one of them.

Before a conflict gets properly developed it gets resolved again already and a new problem for the characters arises, almost immediately after that. You also have to realize that this all happens in the time span of about 90 minutes. Far too short for all of the themes and problems that this movie wants to handle. It especially all starts to become too much in its last half hour. Because of this, all of the emotions and drama fall kind of flat. Not just within its final 30 minutes, in which everything gets wrapped up too fast and desperately but also, to some less extend, within the rest of the movie.

A real shame, since the movie starts off promising enough. It looks like s skilfully made movie and also the actors give us all that they got. This movie is some real wasted potential in that regard, that never reaches the level that it was all too obviously aiming for. It was an ambitious project but in its attempts to reach its goals and the level it was aiming for it totally looses its focus. It tries to do and achieve far too much, as if the film-makers were afraid to cut some of the movie or leave some stuff out of the script. You could perhaps 'blame' it on the inexperienced director and writer Job Gosschalk, who had never directed or wrote a movie before this one. He is a good visual and actor's director but he still needs to learn how to effectively tell a story and how to make it all work out within a movie.

I surprisingly enough still really liked the acting and even though the characters don't really work out on an emotional level, they still remain good characters that are also likable ones, that carry the movie. Fore the movie is one that heavily relies on all of its characters and is also filled with lots of dialog and interaction between all of the characters. Yes, even Paul de Leeuw is totally convincing in a non-comedy related role for a change.

Some wasted potential.

5/10

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