Tout le bonheur du monde

If you look up bad film in the dictionary this movie would be listed. I was looking forward to seeing this and watched it with my husband. He looked at me halfway through the movie and asked if it was a joke. Excruciatingly difficult to watch and hold your attention. If there is someone you don't like, recommend this movie and expect an angry face next time you see them.

Pretentious, pointless arthouse softcore porn "drama". Terrible acting, even worse camera setups and editing. Turned it off after 30 min. I only finished it to say my review is fair. Even by the end, I was more irritated by the film's attempt at the resolution. Just a joke.

To be fair, this film still has 45 minutes left as I'm writing this, so maybe it will redeem itself. And it has had the advantage of lots of gratuitous male nudity, most of it delicious.

But seriously....WTF?? Maybe if I'd done a couple of bong hits beforehand, this all would have made sense (or been tolerable). Maybe I need the ghost of Ingmar Bergman to explain it to me.

There's a bizarre "film within a film" sequence in the middle that takes up waaaaay to much time, so maybe that's throwing me off.

But good lord...think I should've just popped in some gay porn.

This is probably one of the most beautifully photographed movies I've seen. The use of light, shadow, focus, position and movement of the camera … my technical knowledge and vocabulary limit what I can say about it, but it is stunning and sensual. A successful photographic exhibition could be mounted using stills from the movie. It is very much a visual presentation and almost exclusively focused on the actors … although there are some well designed sets.

The film is designated as a drama but it might be better described as a dance production. There is only a little of what might be termed dance in the conventional, common sense, but the movement & interaction of the very graceful & attractive actors could easily be called ballet-like. Although several of the actors apparently have little previous experience in film, their performances are excellent. The directing, which might be called choreography, was equally impressive.

At one point one of the characters speaks of a movie he and some friends saw. He loved it and his friends hated it. It was, he said, an "art house" production with no dialogue and it was very long. The same could easily be said of the unfortunately titled." I Am Happiness On Earth." It is 2 hours long and there is little dialogue… although there were some scenes with background narration that reminded me of the poetry of Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

I can see why some people would be turned off by the pace and style. If you want a plot that progresses from A to B, fast- paced action and engaging dialogue, this is not the movie to watch. But if you can enjoy "art house" films, you really should watch this, at least once.

I don't know how this film ended as I couldn't get through it. It seemed to break off in to a second film, halfway through. I'm not sure what it was metaphorically meant to be or what Netflix' definition of cerebral is, but too me it was just weird.

If I'm honest I forwarded to the sex to see if it was worth it and then turned it off. They were trying too hard to be arty and the acting was not that good. In fact I've seen better porn actors.