Mixalidis

This fairly straightforward biopic works well because of its honesty and humbleness- it succeeds without essentially having a single traditional villain. It's well-shot and well-acted, the cast brings warmth and life to the characters even before the bigger, more dramatic moments kick in. While the narrative does lose steam around the 80-minute mark, it quickly regains its footing within 10 minutes or so, delivering an emotional punch that keeps you invested through to the end.

Like all biopics, it's not entirely faithful, but it's almost pointless to mention it at this point in movies. A few truly powerful scenes, such as the pulling hoses, and the last scene. Like most biopics, it's not entirely faithful to the real story, but at this point, that feels like a given in movies. Although the movie is relatively quiet and understated, it delivers a few truly powerful moments, like the pulling horses scene and the very last scene, which made me cry (I won't say why, don't worry).

I'm not sure why this movie is so obscure, it could be a family favorite.

It is good to finally watch a Croatian movie with realistic, believable characters and situations. The location, for once, was well used. The (mostly) calm, vast sea is in contrast with the tempest inside characters and them being confined to a lone home on the island. The similarity of the barren Kornati islands are in contrast to complex personas, all different from each other. Having small parts of the plot underwater was amazing, underwater shots are certainly underutilized in cinema.

The three main characters are well fleshed out, effectively using simple dialogues and body language. Majority of conversations like these certainly do happen in Dalmatia. Curcic, who is a Serbian-born Danish actress, had no accent at all, which was great. Lots of details ensured the movie feels authentic, for example it was crucial for the main character to know to swim well. Gracija and the director already made a short movie set by/in the sea, so it's not a surprise.

I only have few small things to complain about. The first one is the nudity (which I have nothing against), which felt forced with the camera angle that was used. In the interview I read, the director said she did it on purpose because there are certain expectations on how women should film and portray other women, and she wanted to break those stereotypes. In the end, her personal frustrations translated to few distracting scenes.

The second, more important, is the scene before the last, where the director went close to cheap sensationalism. I thought it wasn't necessary. I am fine with the last shot and how the movie "resolved", but a little bit less because of the scene beforehand.

For those who are not Croatians, the crosses on the island were made to commemorate the tragic deaths of young firefighters who died in an accident there more than a decade ago.

P. S. The director said she went "gentle" on Ante and that fathers are "much worse in reality in Croatia". What a sick and untruthful comment from a typical self-loathing modern feminist educated in the West.

Regardless of your or the director's ideology, the movie is absolutely worthy of your attention.

First off, stop selling dramas with quirky characters and three potentially funny situations as comedy-dramas to attract broader audiences. This is a (humorous) drama.

Despite the off-putting, exaggerated naivety and silliness of the Southerners thrown in your face at first, the movie does a really good job at drawing you into the story and the relationships between the characters.

Unfortunately, we get no background on the conflicts between the male characters. Madeleine, a mature and a rational woman falling for George and hastily marrying him makes no sense based on what is laid in front of us.

The movie takes a quite dramatic turn from a light drama into a tragedy near the end. None of the conflicts are resolved in the end, we learn almost nothing new about the characters. It would have worked better as a slice-of-life movie without the tragedy and tension between the brothers being taken to another level. The artist subplot, while being the main motivator for the family visit and making up a good portion of the movie runtime, sort of goes nowhere. It is used in one important, but brief scene near the end.

In the end, it is one of those movies I call unnecessary. Did I enjoy it? I kind of did. But did I miss anything by not watching it until now? Absolutely not.

Embeth does her usual, by now tiring, sweet elegant woman schtick once again. I like her, but this was all too familiar. McKenzie and Adams are the standouts.