La gomera

The promotion of this movie as a comedy really does it a disservice. In reality, it's very twisty, complex neo-noir, which is fine. I was attracted to the film partly because I had heard it was funny, but it isn't (although there is a little bit of wry/cynical humor). Misrepresenting a movie's genre sets it up to fail with viewers, who go in expecting something different.

If you do like neo-noir crime dramas with a lot of references to past classic films (both Romanian and American), this is definitely one to check out. It has a great soundtrack as well.

Cristi is a middle aged undercover police officer with mommy issues who is trying to find the location of some stolen money. So he goes to a remote island to learn a whistling language that will allow him to communicate with the criminals from a distance. There he rekindles a relationship with his old flame and his priorities change. As both the criminals and his colleagues are onto Cristi what choices will he make to come out clean of his predicament? A clever game of cops and robbers ensues.

Summing up this multi layered, not always coherent plot, is not an easy task. THE WHISTLERS takes a long time to get going but it's many elements come together building up to something special. Heavy on movie references it is heavily inspired by Tarantino movies, although the style of the cinematography is rather dull.

The script on paper must look great, but this is the case where a writer should let go of his work and let someone else direct. Cornelliu Porumboiu helmed 13 films but seems to be still searching for his directing style. While all the cast do their job well, the motives of their characters for the majority of the film are obscure to say the least.

But if this is the originality you are looking for THE WHISTLERS is for you. With good timing and a genuine sense of wit it is a rewarding experience for those who will stick with it until the end.

... but with lashings of skulduggery, this enjoyable and original noirish escapade mixes Spanish villains with corrupt Romanian detectives via a cryptic whistle to cover their tracks.

Very neat film with consistent tone, not too fast not too slow, it exploits its resources very well. There are not too many locations and all of them are very well chosen and filmed, mostly the remore island of La Gomera and Bucharest. Scenes never drag, there's very neat dialogue as well. It does a lot with just enough, the main character is a man of few words but everything is understood and I rooted for him. Very elegant film, if anything a bit too orderly, meeting all the requirements of the genre as a well-applied applicant. It joins the trend of narrative in closed chapters and it works great, again, very elegant and orderly. The lead female is an absolute beauty, as should be the case in any self-respecting neo-noir. And there's the whistling thing which is awesome, that alone gives something special to the story, a pretty cool touch, yearning like a fairy tale, or maybe more like an opera.

Good stuff, perfect gem of a movie, ideal for an evening when you don't know what movie you want to watch.

There is not much choice nowadays, mostly movies are propaganda, so I enjoyed this piece of movie art. Quite unique style, slowly developing and realistically looking characters.