hbraun

I really enjoyed this movie.

Before I watched it, I had checked the IMDb score and some user comments, and already thought to simply return the DVD to the public library. Glad I did't. This is a really neat little film.

In many respects nothing special, the first thing I was wondering about was the strange English. But as one of the main characters is Hungarian (in the film and for real), and some of the others Chinese (?), this made perfect sense. There are more obvious flaws, but I did not really care. The film does not pretend to be more ambitious and flashy than it is. And transcends itself somehow, party through some sort of understatement, partly through flowing very smoothly.

I have to admit that I liked the two main characters, perhaps not great actors, but believable as real individuals. And of course pretty erotic, also in a very understated way. Temporary nakedness as something natural. The two quickly established a beautiful relationship, that might be called kitschy. But so what? I guess women might like the film as well, since the male characters are quite ridiculous, although also in a quite normal way.

And a nice happy end. Really very kitschy, but perfectly suitable to this carefully-made and quite detail-rich permutation of a trivial movie theme.

Pretty disappointing. Not a thrilling and subtle political thriller, but just an exceedingly long panorama of an uninteresting person's miserable life. Despite excellent acting, I always thought that the scenes looked like artificial studio settings. It always looked like a movie, not like an illusion of real life which movies should try to achieve. The plot might be very intelligent, and it is certainly thought provoking. But perhaps it only looks as if is intelligent. Maybe it is just very confuse and arbitrary and makes you wonder that you just did not get all the details. Possibly the details were just missing. Certainly very boring and instantly forgettable. Although I think it is a very good movie. Just plain boring.

Maybe another example, where an ambitious newcomer director hides the lack of a true story behind a road movie. This time with two weird young ladies returning to their Iceland home country.

The movie isn't really bad, it is quite entertaining, sometimes a little bit funny, some scenes really 'breath life' - but only sometimes the two main characters seem really 'alive' (not a mere construction played by wanna-be actresses).

If you want to enjoy the wonderful Icelandic countryside, I rather recommend 'Cold Fever' (also a road movie, but a really beautiful one).