Terug naar de kust

I try to watch all Dutch movies because I like Holland. I also watch other movies too so that was surprising for me that "Terug Naar De Kust" is quite similar to 1992 American romantic movie "The Bodyguard" (starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.)

BACK TO THE COAST: -- THE BODYGUARD: Maria is a singer / Rachel is a singer -- Maria receives hate letters / Rachel receives hate letters -- Maria's sister is Jealous / Rachel's sister is jealous too !!

Another problem is when they released the DVD even did not bother to add English subtitles for that. It seems they just produced the film for domestic market.

Dutch cinema is improving. Some good films such as "Black Book" and "Sonny Boy" have been produced. In this atmosphere, in my opinion, "Terug Naar De Kust" is a backward! :(

"Terug naar de kust" (Back to the coast) is an adaption of the Dutch novel of the same name by Saskia Noort. Not having read the book, I started watching it expecting some mediocre Dutch over-dramatized flick with bad acting. But in the end, I was quite pleasantly surprised that it wasn't half bad.

The story revolves around Maria, played by Linda de Mol, a mother of two that sings in a band with her often drunk and unfaithful boyfriend. After breaking up with him and having an abortion (against his will), Maria starts getting threatening letters. Add a rather creepy fan of her band that seems to be stalking Maria, and she leaves town to stay at her parents' old house at the coast, where now Maria's sister lives. We learn rather traumatic things took place here in Maria's youth, involving her mother's descent into madness.

A series of events commence, causing Maria to feel more and more unsafe and trust no-one, while the people around her are starting to think she is becoming crazy, like her mother. Initially fighting this belief, Maria eventually starts questioning her own sanity, where Linda de Mol's emotional acting contributed to the doubt that arose in both herself and her surroundings, and me as the viewer.

While not spectacular, the film does have an interesting ending, where everything becomes clear to the viewer.

In short, a film without any outstanding acting, extreme originality, or inspiring dialogue, but on the other hand, I couldn't find any terribly bad elements either. An enjoyable, decent psychological movie, but don't expect anything amazing.

6/10

The rock 'n' roll singer Maria (Linda de Mol) raises her son and her daughter alone and her unfaithful boyfriend, the guitarist Geert (Daan Schuurmans), is living with her. When she sees Geert cheating on her, she decides to break with him. Immediately after, she finds that she is pregnant and decides to abort the baby against Geert's will. Soon she finds that someone is stalking and sending photo of her abortion to her but the police detective Van Wijk (Pierre Bokma) does not give much attention to her. Maria travels with her children to the house of her sister Ans (Ariane Schluter), who is a psychologist and was dumped by her boyfriend a couple of days ago, expecting to stay with her for a short period. Soon bad things happen to Maria and Van Wijk believes she is the responsible asking for attention. But her troubles do not stop to escalate.

"Terug naar de kust", a.k.a. "The Dark House" (2009), is a predictable but entertaining Dutch thriller not released in Brazil. I saw this film in a KLM's flight without any previous reference and the plot is not so bad as indicated in many reviews. It is predictable who the stalker is and Detective Van Wijk is a ridiculous character, but there are interesting scenes and situations along the plot. The conclusion is also not bad. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

If "Terug naar de Kust" would have been an American film, it surely would have become the type of standard TV-thriller starring previously popular but already washed up soap actresses (Heather Locklear or Yasmine Bleeth, for instance) that only gets programmed on Saturday afternoons on mediocre cable channels. That may sound very harsh, but it's the truth. Luckily for everyone involved, this is a Dutch film production and since feminist thrillers are still relatively rare and innovative in this part of the world, "Terug naar de Kust" became a highly profiled and unanimously acclaimed hit. All the ingredients for local success are there. Lead actress Linda De Mol is probably the most popular Dutch actress of the past two decades, the plot is adapted from a bestseller novel by a female author (Saskia Noort) and the entire male supportive cast exists of respectable actors as well. Throw in a simplistic but identifiable plot and a whole lot of reliable thriller clichés and you've got yourself a bona fide national blockbuster. I certainly don't intend to sound arrogant or disrespectful towards the Dutch film industry, as "Terug naar de Kust" still remains a well made and cleverly promoted film, but it merely just stands for brainless entertainment and certainly isn't a major cinematic accomplishment for a nation to be proud of. The title literally translates itself as "Return to the Coast" and illustrates our protagonist Maria's attempt to flee from a series of misfortunes that suddenly overcomes her. Shortly after separating from her adulterous and heavily drinking boyfriend, and having performed an abortion without discussing it with him, Maria receives death threats from an anonymous stalker. The assigned police inspector doesn't take her very serious and even implies that she sent the notes herself as a cry for attention, and thus Maria takes her children and moves in with her older sister at their parental house next to the coast. The stalking doesn't stop and arson even destroys her house in Amsterdam, but everything leads back to Maria herself and even she begins to fear that she's slowly becoming psychotic… Like their mother became psychotic when they were still young children. Even if you have only seen one or two thrillers in your entire life, you can easily and precisely predict every next plot twist, explain the mysterious behavior of any random character and even foretell the supposedly shocking finale. The script is thoroughly unsurprising from start to finish and reverts to the oldest tricks in the book in a desperate attempt to generate suspense and confusion amongst the viewers, like overly obvious suspects (the obsessive admirer) and harrowing childhood flashbacks (two innocent girls silently watching their parents' arguing from the stairs, or hiding under the bed). It's almost laughable, incredible and slightly pathetic how director Will Koopman actually dared to use such dreadful clichés! The cast members seem to take their lines serious, nevertheless, and even remain straight-faced in the stupidest situations imaginable. By the way, Koen De Bouw is an extremely talented Belgian actor and should stick to his Belgian roots instead of adapting to a Duch accent which sounds atrocious. He as well as Huub Stapel, Pierre Bokma and Daan Schuurmans are terribly underused, all because everything revolves on Linda De Mol. Unless you are a die-hard fan of her, I don't think there's anything here to recommend. There are rather few action sequences and, with a running time of no less than 110 minutes, I'm sure that many redundant and boring sequences could have been cut.

This film is utter crap ! If it would be possible to give negative stars this one would rate about - 8.It's a DUTCH movie.Consisering you'r warned , I now start with my review. Linda de Mol who 'plays 'the main part is 'acting' like a Robot.There is no sense of any Real emotion in her character whatsoever.She is a very popular TV personality here in the Low-Lands,The perfect daughter-in-law so to say...She is a guarantee for a Full-house...but my goldfish does it better !The script is horrifiying poor and predictable...the photography make one shiver...f.i there is the constantly play with dept-of-field..which dulls the total camera work. Even great actors,as we Dutch like to call them , like Pierre Bokma put their career at stake by appearing in this 'monster '...Pierre's part adds nothing what-so-ever to the story... which is soooo baaad.

BTW, the make-up artist who toughed Linda's face should apply for a house painting job !

anyway these kind of movies still give you a great time...because you die laughing the whole piece through.

it's a shame to realize people actually payed money to go to the cinema to see this thing....