De laatste dagen van Emma Blank

Anyone who has taken care of the aged or the sick, not necessarily during the end of their days, will probably attest to some difficult, testy situations faced from time to time, especially with demands made, reasonable or otherwise, that you'd try to fulfill, rationalized by innate, good natured intentions to try and make it as pleasing and comfortable as possible for the one needing care. But what if you get taken for granted, and worst, being ordered around like a slave to deliver goods and services on the forgetful whims of the sick?

This is one extremely dark comedy that plays on that notion of wanting to please, but only so because of the expected reward that should come at the end, especially if it involves the likelihood of given a larger chunk of some inheritance. Emma Blank (Marlies Heuer) is dying soon, and the household of her chief butler Heneveld (Gene Bervoets), the maid Gonnie (Eva van de Wijdeven), cook Bella (Annet Malherbe), handyman Meier (Gijs Naber) and even the family dog Theo (Alex van Warmerdam! Yes! The writer-director himself!) all do their best to cater to the flip-flopping whims of their mistress of the house. It is a little bit artificial in their hugely dysfunctional setup, but you haven't known dysfunctional yet especially once the story wears on, and the relationships with one another get more defined.

You'd soon realize all is not normal, especially when you have a human, at first whom can be thought to be mentally challenged, behaving exactly like how a dog would. It seemed that Emma Blank has this hold on everyone else, and with every single instruction being obeyed to a tee, with no questions asked. An example will be like how Heneveld got ordered to have a moustache. Overnight. And to have one that is to Emma's liking so that it'll fit in with his position in the house.

There's plenty of playacting here since the family isn't that ostentatiously rich to afford that many servants to wait on Emma hand and feet. And what the fun is in the film, is when these facade get systematically pulled back to reveal the character's true position in the household, and their real family ties, which in summary, can deal with things like potential incest, a sexual predator in the waiting, a fake steady relationship, mutual advantages gained from keeping up the pretenses, and even an extramarital affair all thrown into a heady mix. Keep your ears peeled of course as these are sometimes mentioned in passing, which can disorientated you at first, but the payload's all the more worthwhile when the inevitable happens, and these dynamics all rear their head in full glory.

And this cannot be done without the excellent acting chops of all the cast members, who in essence are taking on dual roles as who their characters are, and the make believe roles that their characters play. Marlies Heuer is frustratingly good as the overpowering matriarch barking orders with conviction and sarcasm, never slow in laying the blame on anyone who dare cross her moody path. And who would have thought that the writer-director will get into self-deprecating mode by playing a dog for the most parts. Comes with a catchy theme tune that will become a earworm.

at first sigh - cruel. mixture of theater play and horror title. in fact, only honest picture from a part of ordinary existence. this is its key. the credible chain of gestures and dialogs. the details of action. the brilliant gray acting. a film as warning about sickness, pity, roles in a group, links between people. a wise film, far of usual traps, clear and grave, profound and clear as a water glass. each character as drawing of a state of soul. the performance of Marlies Heuer is really beautiful. the work of her colleagues - impressive. must see it ! not only as a special Dutch film. but as question about roots of decisions of every day.

The questions come to mind .. a)how does he choose the scripts... b)are the followers closet deadpan humour addicts? .. and on and on and on..

If you know AVW's movies, this is in line of others. You have to catch on - read the motivations of the characters - like in real life, people usually don't spiel out monologues like in Hamlet.

It is funny, quirky, yeah..all that. But it is a bit dark too. The fist 30min is the most intriguing as each character review themself - you are like meeting new ppl in a party. The next hour or so goes deep into the relationships, and the last bit... well.. I really can't remember, since I saw this last year. But darn thing is I remember the ending of Die Hard 1.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It's a shame the movie does not keep one pace or sticks with its concept and instead opts to change gears every now and then. Unfortunately when it does so, it almost falls flat on its back. Funny, quirky and anything but political correct and still somehow predictable after awhile. Not completely of course, but enough to make a weird balance (not in a good way that is).

The acting is good and the idea is very nice. But again it changes too often in tone (not visually, just mood-wise) to stick with you. Or at least me that is. Of course it depends on your level of tolerance and how much you like those sort of movies anyway.

I can't understand why Alex Warmerdam's movies haven't reached a larger audience. Quirky, bizarre, original dialog, beautiful setting, great actors - with wife Annet Malherbe always the true star. His latest is a remake of a play and plays out like one. I thought the Dutch dunes were portrayed fabulously and the house was a marvel. The acting great, with national promise Eva van de Wijdeven putting down a stellar performance that matches young French actresses like the girl who played in Swimming Pool and our own Carice. The plot is as with all his screenplays disturbing yet hilarious, isolated yet universal, crazy yet supernormal. The guy cracks me up. Give him a global distributor for God's sake!