Heimatland

This is a quasi-good film about nothing.

I really do not like commenting on other reviews, but the crud about how they admit the movie is slow, without purpose or connectivity, yet give high praise because it talks about Swiss society? And the rest of us are supposed to know this and some how relate? ... and the parts that the director never connects up, like the genesis of the mystery cloud, about how the different conversations connect up, etc? OK, maybe there is a small group of viewers in Switzerland that might actually finds the 'artistry' of this meaningful, but the rest of the viewers of this movie are stuck in a cloud of WTF.

Ten people directed this snoozefest. No explenation of why the storm is there (CERN maybe?). Characters seem totally uninterested in the whole ordeal. We don't know what happens when the storm hits and by the time it does hit (which we don't see) the movie ended and I didn't care anymore. Maybe the storm is there to get rid of Switzerland for being such a boring country, who the hell knows at this point.

This is unusual. It seems disjointed, for sure. I suppose it would make sense to me if I were Swiss and experienced actions that might affect that society. I didn't find the usual empathy for the characters that show up in most movies regarding some type of disaster. I have no doubt that it has some philosophical meaning apparent to Europeans. Is the storm societal change that people face? Characters handled their 'doom' predicament in various ways: self destruction, sensual parties, self destruction, attempts of escape, masturbation, etc. I could barely stay with the flick, but I did, just to see what happened. To me, it was just odd, but one of the girls was cute!

I thought the premise had promise at first. Switzerland is experiencing a natural disaster which threatens the entire country, all at once. How do different factions of society cope? The film has multiple plot threads which reflect various parts of Swiss society, but the involvement of multiple directors results in zero plot cohesion. This, combined with the abrupt ending prior to the storm actually hitting, means we don't really learn anything about Swiss society at all. Natural disasters as a framing device for social commentary can work well, but the director has to take an editorial view. This movie ultimately doesn't really say anything, other than possibly pointing out the drawbacks of not being an EU member.

Starting with a sex scene the way this movie does shows me no one has confidence in this movie so they need to do something to grab your attention. I hate when movies rely on cheap nudity to get attention. And they'd be right to have no confidence in this film. The characters are so uninteresting I've forgotten them all already.

The other great crime is the fact they have made impending disaster in this film boring. It takes a rare Lack of talent to make incoming disasters boring but they've achieved it here.

Not a good look for Switzerland here, all I can think is they're boring but hedonistic. Don't waste your time.