Zus & zo

In the first 10 minutes: "Oh no, our gay brother is getting married to a girl just to inherit daddy's hotel in Portugal!"

Half an hour later: "Oh no, our gay brother is getting married to a girl just to inherit daddy's hotel in Portugal!"

An hour later: "Oh no, our gay brother is getting married to a girl just to inherit daddy's hotel in Portugal!"

And finally in the last half hour they actually do something about it, but I wasn't interested anymore. The rest of the film is filled with the life of the sisters themselves. But personally I thought all of them were quite annoying, so I couldn't have cared less. And that ol' Dutch provocative sex comes through as well. Filmmakers don't seem to notice the majority of the Dutch saying they're getting pretty fed up with all that.

I have no idea why this film was nominated for an Oscar, since it has very little interesting to offer. "Character" which won an Oscar before was absolutely worth it. See 'm both and see the difference.

Paula van der Oest's Academy Award-nominated "Zus & Zo" is a lighthearted comedy about events surrounding a wedding involving a gay man. The Netherlands was probably the most advanced country in terms of gay rights by the time that the movie came out, so I figure that there was no controversy about it (2001 in fact saw the establishment of marriage equality in the Netherlands). The movie itself isn't anything special. If you're expecting full-scale wacky comedy - i.e., what you get in a Will Ferrell movie - you won't find it here. This movie's all about the characters' interactions with each other and the issues surrounding the marriage. Not a great movie, but passable.

Co-star Halina Reijn, who plays Bo, later directed the 2022 thriller "Bodies Bodies Bodies".

Even in The Netherlands, Dutch movies hardly ever get the attention and number of viewers as movies from the United States. I don't know what the box office results for 'Zus & zo' finally will be. But it is very likely that the American remake (RCV bought the rights) of this movie will be more successful than the Dutch original.

This is unjust. 'Zus & zo' is a romantic comedy, with a soap like story-line, and is very funny, yet moving - and thus nothing like a soap at all. The timing of the actors - very important for a comedy - is good, as most actors know each other from the same theater company. Every character - both male and female - gets it's share of scepsis by sharp observation of their manners, yet the director managed to prevent over-the-top acting.

'Zus & zo' provides a real life mirror for everyone. Choose your own character to take 'example' from: one of the three jealous sisters in their thirties, not satisfied with their lives, but also not able to change it. Or one of the husbands, one addicted to women, or the other being a doormat suffering under his wife's hospitality for just about every one who needs help. Or the timid gay brother, marrying a woman (!) to inherit his parents summer residence in Portugal. Or the optimist (opportunist?) bride-to-be Bo, much more self-confident than the three sisters and apparently without a weak point.

Or just enjoy this tragi-comic portrait of a slightly derailed family.

This movie once again proves the viability of Dutch cinema. It has wit, pace and some very endearing and convincing characters. It shifts through both serious and lightweighted issues without ever losing balance, whilst maintaining a number of different viewpoints (right vs. wrong, true vs. untrue), and perhaps its highest achievement lies in the way it treats a taboo subject (which I will not reveal here) with daring and care. I was particularly touched by the way the two main themes of family and identity were brought to life. I left the cinema just wanting to see my brother and parents again and see how they were doing. It was that good.

"Zus & Zo" is all about three adult sisters who conspire to thwart their gay brother's forthcoming wedding thus preventing him from inheriting a beautiful hotel on the Portuguese coast. Their late patriarch wanted his gay son to go "straight", so he left the hotel to him if he married. However, the bro wants to acquire the hotel with a marriage of convenience so he can sell it to pay for transsexual surgery - something the distaff want to prevent each for their own selfish reasons. This Dutch flick gets busy and stays busy with nonstop prattling about the "this and that" (zus and zo) of the family, the bro, the hotel, and miscellaneous side plots making it a beautifully filmed and wonderfully cast dialogue-intensive subtitlefest for those who don't spekadalanguage. Mildly amusing, sometimes sentimental, occasionally poignant, always enjoyable, and incessantly yappy, "Zus & Zo" is just too much reading for too little payoff. (B-)