An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Theo van Gogh and starring Katja Schuurman, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, like so many other interesting Dutch directors, even though I live in the Netherlands, his work is almost never shown on TV so it took me more than 10 years to finally see another one of his directorial efforts. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t an easy movie to digest though. Indeed, it is really ugly with a very amateurish feeling and the acting was borderline atrocious. No wonder that none of the 5 guys who played this group of friends never had a career afterwards. I have to admit that Johnny de Mol, who did become fairly famous in the Netherlands afterwards, was the least bad of the bunch and he almost nailed it. However, he was still no Al Pacino though and his character was also completely ruined by the fact that he was walking around with a ridiculous cane. Concerning  Katja Schuurman, well, she was pretty weak as well (on the other hand, she wasn’t helped by the fact that her character was really poorly developed) but, damned, she looked really gorgeous back in those days and I’m not surprised that she was a major sex symbol at the time in the Netherlands. So, this movie did seem to be more or less a disaster and, yet, at some point, it suddenly reminded me of Harmony Korine’s work. Indeed, and if van Gogh’s trashy approach was actually on purpose? It suddenly became much more intriguing or maybe I’m giving this movie more credit than it actually deserves. Either way, it was still nothing great though. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was certainly an acquired taste but I think it is worth a look, at least, if you are interested in Theo van Gogh’s work. 

6/10