Principles of Life

Given the previous movie directed by Constantin Popescu, the excellent "Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man", I confess I was expecting more from this movie. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad movie (given the standards in romanian cinema), but I don't see the point of making it. It's like... a movie about nothing. At least it doesn't have the audacity to call itself artsy, like many other romanian movies. It's below mediocre and it seems fine with it.

I didn't enjoy the movie much - it bored me to hell - but the reason is that I already know how a Romanian lives. The guy in the movie looks and acts a lot like my brother in law, too, so I couldn't feel like I've learned anything from the film. The experience could be completely different for a non Romanian person.

The actors are playing OK, especially the main character. Their characters are all archetypes of personality, roles that they play in their lives like the actors play them in the film. There is the father, proud and feeling in control, but actually lacking much of it; there is the annoying adolescent son, who isn't a bad kid, but is completely self centered; there is the good mother, her new family staying friends with the separated husband's and there is the ridiculous world around them. And then the movie ends.

I really wish there would have been something funnier or deeper in all of this.

Movie is best experienced if you are romanian or have someone who is romanian to explain more in depth

The acting is good, as well as the pace. Scenes are not thrown around randomly, there is a REASON why the anger is thrown around, and how it is thrown... pay attention carefully. It will make more sense towards the end. And for the ending, people get really divided over it, but I don't want to spoil it.

Also love how they don't cut the scenes 100000 times. They have one long scene, after another, the actors really did their best and it really creates a good genuine atmosphere. You can feel the hard work that they put in. You can see the well designed scenes, the genuine dialogue.

Without spoling it, I have to say I love how the last scene was so genuine. Uncut, and not edited. Look at american movies... nothing but CGI. All fake, trying to act cool... but this movie acts REAL. It's not just tons of money thrown around, it's HARD WORK from actors. And the director was the one who put hard work into making the dialogue. Pay close attention to the details in this movie... they're not randomly placed.