De grot

my comment on this so called thriller / suspense is that is has no action at all and the real thrills are hard to find. Okay the story is fine, the loads of flashbacks are not annoying and can be followed very easily. It's good that it's only 90 minutes, at the end it was hard to keep my eyes open, no action, no shocking moments, nothing! I think people will have more fun reading the book.

I saw this movie by accident yesterday at a cinema. I had some hopes for the movie because I really like Spoorloos (The Vanishing) and the book it's based on. The movie starts out okay as it at first seems to be a nice thriller. Quickly though the movie becomes a mess with uninteresting plotlines, characters that are never fleshed out and nobody in the audience cared for (like Marjoke) and terrible editing. The movie has fade to black bits that are just way too long, a messed up chronology that jumps back and forth and lots of scenes that just don't add anything to the story and could easily have been dropped. After suffering through the story you'll get treated to one of the worst endings I've seen in a very long. It should also be mentioned that the movie has lots of explicit sex scenes which you're probably used to if you watch a lot of dutch movies. It's hard to mention any good things about this movie. About a third of the audience had already walked out of the theater halfway into the movie and I didn't hear a kind word after the movie was over. Avoid this movie at all costs. it really destroyed any faith I had left in the dutch movie industry.

The movie starts in killing suspence and ends in a typical way according to the writer's style (Krabbe). A must see for every filmfan capable of speaking Dutch. The DVD has been released and is worth the effort of walking to the shops. Dutch movies are never a succes unless they are shallow and action-minded and so was this film a total flop.

Broaden your horizon and see this movie!

Though structured totally different from the book by Tim Krabbé who wrote the original 'The Vanishing' (Spoorloos) it does have the same overall feel, except for that Koolhoven's style is less business-like and more lyric. The beginning is great, the middle is fine, but the sting is in the end. A surprise emotional ending. As you could read in several magazines there is some sex in the film, but it is done all very beautifully. Never explicit, but with lots of warmth and sometimes even humour. It is a shame American films can't be as open an honoust as this one. Where Dutch films tend to go just over the edge when it comes to this subject, 'De Grot' stays always within the boundaries of good taste. 'De Grot' tells an amazing story stretched over more than 30 years. When you'll leave the cinema you'll be moved. What can we ask more of a film? Anyway, this film even gives more....

This film, directed by Netherlands' Martin Koolhaven, is worth paying to see for the price of 8 bucks. It's a dramatic and character-driven tale, adapted from Tim Krabbe's novel. It's told by merging past and present events. The dialogue is cold and precise – appropriate to the characters. In this coming-of-age story, there's a strong corruption theme that leads to a couple of temporal crises -- drug running and mid-life! The adult and young actors are well matched for their character roles.

The thrilling flow of back and forth flash-takes offers different time frames, involving the lives of several characters. Fedja Van Huet as the adult Egon, and Erik Van der Horst as the young Egon, will leave viewers with very powerful food for thoughts about peer influences. Yep, a provokingly scary thought that a young man's destiny is determined by the strong forces of relationships – thematically similar to some of Thomas Hardy's works. Marcel Hensema as the adult Axel, and Benja Bruijning as the young Axel, energize the film with their charismatic, domineering, and psychological ploys. "People are lazy; they'd rather obey than have to think up something to want. They're grateful when you think of something for them." Axel's law? Perhaps! Axel truly belongs to the cheaters and seducers of society! With regard to their traits, manners, and ambitions, Egon and Axel couldn't have been better examples of two men sitting at the opposite ends of a pole.

The theme of opposites does come into play repeatedly. Attention should be given to Kim Huffman's Marcy and Kelly Touwslager's Marjoke to fully understand how the two relate at the end. Character development and motivation are well focussed throughout this film.

The concentration is on the 30-year Egon-Axel relationship to justify how persuasion could bring the downfall of a seemingly promising and sensible young man. For Egon to shake off Axel is like shaking off his own shadow. Done in a psychologically complex weaving of character presentations, this film does provide imaginative and suspenseful tension. It allows the characters to come together as young teens, settle them in separate frontiers, before re-uniting them for the final destinies.

Truly a satisfying psycho-thriller about friendship, desires, destiny and treason (amazingly, these themes came through with another film, "The Crime of Father Amaro", too!) It's fascinating to watch the characters trying to weigh their own identities. The film has some visually graphic sex scenes. Dialogue fluctuates between Dutch and English.