The Beast

I haven't written many reviews on here. I feel like I want to shout out about this movie. It left me with goosebumps! First Flemish movie I've watched and certainly now wont be my last.

Amazing movie. Very well directed and acted. Really liked the main male character and you could feel his torment from what happened in his past.

Don't want to give anything away but this truly is a must see movie but not for the feint hearted. Certainly not your typical run of the mill Hollywood movie which makes a nice change. Dark and disturbing....one of those movies that leaves you thinking... what if...

Some films get a "free pass" i.e. an IMDb rating of 7 or higher (which makes the film a must-watch) because of their subject matter. Any film which deals with difficult subject matter such as child abduction, molestation etc. will automatically pull at the heart strings so you can't really go wrong with them in terms of audience investment in the characters and the story.

Yes, this film is worth watching because you will of course be emotionally impacted (unless you have no feelings) but I've rated the film a 6 based on the merits of the production and writing etc. The film definitely has Hollywood's production quality and the main actors are charismatic if a little hollow.

My main gripe(s) with this film are: movie realism. It is an accepted fact that police officers ALWAYS go off the deep end and break ALL the rules to solve crimes and hell, normal people would too! If I were confronting a paedophile and trying to get information, they'd at least lose a few fingers before I would give up - what the hell is this guy doing? There are so many scenes where you're expecting the lead guy to do something above and beyond to get what he needs but he doesn't and it's so frustrating! and unbelievable! Not just in movie land but in the real world too! Frankly, this guy's police work and deduction skills are appalling (not the actor's fault of course). There was one particular word which connected things but it made no sense that ALL the kids would be using the same word... why?! Did the guy have this word tattooed on his forehead or something??

Too many times I had to go 'urgh, as if' at the screen and the ending was infuriating. ¡It's not exactly Fort Knox though is it!

So it's worth watching just because of the subject matter... except it's not is it? Because the subject matter is revolting.

Truth be told, up until things started to get ridiculous, I would have recommended watching this film but now that I've seen the whole thing, I'm not going to. I still give it a 6 for the production quality and the acting and the (unfortunately) emotional storyline but take the latter out and it's just a glossy Hollywood type film with a lot of flaws in the story telling.

6/10

"The Treatment" is very dark Belgian thriller, wonderfully directed, never boring, with great music and a brilliant damaged main character.

In the wrong hands, the movie could have turned out a big cliché, but narrative is so well done, that it pretty much keeps you guessing how it ends.

It's not a movie for the squeamish due to several scenes of abuse. Even the implied, off-screen brutality might not be for everyone.

I was very surprise of the high production quality. Until now, "Bullhead" was for me a Belgian film that set high standards in the dark crime genre, but "The Treatment" is a far more balanced and gritty movie.

If you like the "Prisoners", "Se7en", "True Detective" or "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", be sure not to miss this!

A difficult film to sit through due to the subject matter it handles pedophilia, incest, assault, and murder, the Treatment is as hard-hitting as it can get. It's best visualized as four episodes with intertwining characters and storylines - a) Inspector Cafmeyer's personal tragedy where his brother supposedly gets abducted by a next-door-pedophile, the fact that he's not been found, and how it haunts him 25 years later. b) The horrific Simons family incident where someone tortures them for days, abducts the couple's young boy and leaves him bitten & murdered in a park. c) A repeat of the earlier mentioned event for another family in the neighborhood. d) The big reveal & the finale.

Geert Van Rampelberg is stupendous as the emotionally broken but smart investigator Cafmeyer, who has to hold himself together as cases echoing his brother's disappearance start to pile up. The unraveling of clues is where The Treatment solidly delivers, some having connections to past events and some requiring a forensic elucidation. While I expected this film to go the typical serial-killer route, it both held my attention and made me fleetingly look away as the case(s) started delving deeper into an underground pedophile ring.

The Treatment is the kind of film where bodily fluids (of its helpless victims) can be sensed from afar. The graphic nature of the film lies rooted in its emotional weights, not the blood-letting. The tension is sustained well, and in fact, lingers in your mind long after the credits start to roll.

The Treatment or originally "de Behandeling" is adapted from a serial novel by Mo Hayder with the help of screenwriter Carl Joos and beautifully directed by Hans Herbots.

The film opens with a flashback; two boys are walking alongside train track while a deep and melancholic voice reads letters aloud from a pedophile who claims to have kidnapped and killed one of the children. The letters are addressed to our main protagonist Nick Cafmeyer (Geert Van Rampelberg) and speak of his younger brother, now missing for 25 years.

In the present, Nick, a detective, faced with a case where a mother and father are found brutally tortured and their son is missing. Nick's determination to solve this case grows more and more personal as his pursuit of the truth borders on unhealthily obsessive. Could it be connected with his brother's unsolved kidnapping?

The Treatment is an expertly crafted mind-bender. The film seems to taunt and toy with the audience's anticipations and run it in circles to match our perplexity to Nick's confusion. The cinematography and score are very effective in shaping the mood and aiding in the psychological effect of this film. It's an intellectual piece and will definitely be enjoyed more by the audience who likes to think and not simply be guided by exposition. In fact, this film has very little exposition at all which is a precious attribute to have.

There are elements that were reminiscent of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, True Detective Season One, and Prisoners, perhaps most of all due to its brutally dark subject matter. Overall this picture is a very gritty and engaging story. You'll be trying to follow along, often times drawing the same conclusions as the characters only to be proved wrong time and time again. Much like as in life, The Treatment leaves doesn't simply hand us the answers.

The Treatment is a captivating and wholly original film adaptation of the most sinister persuasion. Evoking sentiments of unease and dread, it is unlike any American film and may be difficult for some to watch.

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