An average movie

To be honest, I'm usually not really a big fan of Dutch movies in general but since this one was dealing with a very interesting story, I was quite eager to check it out. Indeed, ever since I have lived in the Netherlands, every winter, many Dutch people wait to know if there will be a Elfstedentocht but then they always hear in the news that it won't take place because the ice is too thin (in fact, since every winter is less and less cold, you might wonder if it will ever take place again). Basically, it is a skating tour, almost 200 kilometres long and, when you see this movie, it is actually total madness and really difficult for a foreigner to understand why someone would take part in something so gruelling and downright dangerous. And yet, this insanity makes somehow the whole thing actually quite compelling to watch. So, there was definitely some potential here to make a great movie but, unfortunately, pretty much like 'De storm', another Dutch movie released the same year and dealing with another massive dramatic historical event, the whole thing was rather underwhelming, I'm afraid. Indeed, they decided to focus on 4 different skaters, each of them of course, with their motivations but none of their stories was in fact really compelling. In fact, one of the characters was mostly speaking in Frisian, a local dialect, and was therefore almost impossible to follow. In my opinion, at the end of the day, the girl had in fact the least underwhelming storyline but, of course, she was the only one to drop out while all the guys managed to finish. To conclude, even though it didn't reach its full potential, I still think it is a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Dutch movies.