Zus & zo

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.

I had promised myself to see every Dutch movie there is, after seeing the wonderful "Spoorloos" and "Soldaat Van Oranje". Zus & Zo came up as the first Dutch movie I found on DVD with English subtitles, and I couldn't miss it. Well, good thing I didn't. I enjoyed every single frame of it. It's really light, yet close to being a masterpiece. It's not the least bit surprising that this movie was nominated for an Academy Award, it's really great. By the way, I don't want to mislead anyone: It has absolutely nothing to do with the two movies in question, it's 100% different. I just mean it's *almost* as fantastic as they are.

Zus & Zo is not exactly about gays, nor is it about family hardships; it's mostly about feelings and true love. The pure feelings of two men for each other, and the not so pure feelings of 3+1* women for money.(*One of the women is a little more "innocent"; the sisters, however, are not quite that pleasant.*) But the ending comes such that you do not end up hating the women in question. That's for me to say, the rest is for you to watch. And DO watch it, you won't be disappointed. I repeat: It's not a movie for gays, I liked it very much as a straight guy. And Monique Hendrickx is a goddess. I'll marry her when I grow up ;-) I just had to add that!

8.5 out of 10 for Zus & Zo.

I love foreign cinema; in fact, most of my favorite films are not in English. And I consider European cinema to be better, to be simply art. Therefore, I saw this film. I have seen some great films, but this is simply boring and in some parts tasteless. This film is original, it is good, but you end up sleeping. I was not expecting to watch some huge blockbuster, I was aware that this was a slow and pacific film. In fact, I have watched slow films, and actually loved them (Los in translation, Talk to her, Dogville, All about my mother) and this film is simply tasteless. It seems to be washed down, the performances where not very good. I can't believe films such as 'Los lunes al sol', didn't get a nomination, because of this film. The same thing happened at this year with TWIN SISTERS getting nominated. It was slooooooow, boring and the typical Jewish film. Don't expect to watch a masterpiece; in fact you loose your time with this film…..

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.

this movie is about a gay guy, Nino and his upcoming wedding, consisting of his 3 deranged sisters, his fake fiancée Bo, his ex-boyfriend Felix and a range of oddball characters. the plot centres more on the mess-uped lives of the 3 sisters and Nino himself. what strikes me as senseless, is that Felix, a gay man willing got back to his ex-boyfriend who would be undergoing sex change to become a woman. i am confused, is he gay or not? and why would a gay man want to have sex with a woman? as a straight man, i would never ever want to have sex with my wife or girlfriend after she have changed sex to become a man. is Nino a man or woman? the story plot is very hazy and jumbled up. all in all the characters are made to look like their lives revolve around sex and nothing much else.