Film Reviews by rhilton311

OK it's a bit long. I'm assuming the court scenes were accurate (big assumption I agree).

The Jury, who interestingly you never really saw, reaches a verdict (no spoilers there!) but what I liked is that the film never showed you a flashback to confirm whether the jury was correct. For me, I think their verdict was, on balance, the correct verdict. But it did lead to a debate with the others I watched this with as to whether we thought the Jury was correct.

The biggest disappointment was that none of the adults were sympathetic. I wasn't rooting for any of them. The prosecutor was aggressive . The defendant and the deceased were entitled privileged people who seemed to have no idea of the world the rest of us live in. Appropriately they live in a Ski Chalet in the rarefied air of the alps.

There were some good scenes as the background to their marriage unfolded in court but I never felt that a rabbit was going to be pulled out of a hat to prove the case one way or another.

Less a crime drama and more an analysis of a disintegrating marriage.

I try and approach film reviews with the glass half full; that is to say that I look for the positive in the film.

Sadly, there is very very little positive to dsay about this film. 'Russia' or the 'Eastern Front' or whereever this was meant to be set has never looked more like the fields and woods around Surrey. The plot seems to have been made up as it goes along and lacked any sense of tension or believability.

The story was barely credible. Frankly, even if the Russian nurses had the skills the Germans needed they still would have been immediately killed rather than used by the Germans. And I don't think I need to spell out what the German soldiers would have done before killing them.

This is the sort of film that Channel 5 or one of the film channels you find way down the listings might show. I'd probably start watching it and then give up and watch pretty well anything else. as it is I stopped watching this DVD after about 45 minutes. You may well tell me I missed out on a really great movie that just took some time to get going. I very much doubt it.

Sadly, I have to say that one should avoid this film. There are many better WW2 films avalable and there are many better more realistic WW2 Eastern Front films available. I don't mind cheap and sheerful, but this was just cheep and shoddy. No one comes out of this wih any credibility.

I do love the way some film makers (by which I mean those outside Hollywood) will allow a scene to run its course and not cut rapidly to the next scene. However, this can occassionally lead to the film dragging on a bit and I'm afraid there were some scenes in this film that could have been shortened without anything being lost.

I do think the last scene was unnecessary and out of kilter with the rest of the film.

A special mention should be made of the young girl playing the granddaughter. She was exceptionally good and expressed a range of emotions that was very impressive. It would be a great shame if we did not see her again.

OK sorry about the very poor pun. When watching foreign language (by which I mean non English) films I am often thinking what would the result be if Hollywood remade this film. And often you just know that they would miss many of the nuances of the original as the result would not be nearly as good as the original. Not their fault necessarily.

Just occasionally I watch a foreign language (by which I mean etc. etc.) film and realize that no Hollywood executive would touch the film with a barge pole. This is one of those films. Think the love child of a detective thriller crossed with Pans Labyrinth and, spoiler alert, there is a love child involved. Sort of.

It starts as a very dark thriller and veers into a very disturbing love story that will very likely challenge your standard ideas of love and affection. At the end , whatever your opinion of the film I think you will be hard pressed to argue that that this is a film Hollywood will be lining up to remake and all the better for that. Hopefully , like me, you will agree it is an original and one you won't forget for a long while.

I do find it strange that this coming of age film has no reviews. I accept the market for this genre is overfull but this is one of the better ones and is also a road movie to boot. From the wield opening with pigs running loose on the motorway (don't ask) it backtracks to how we get here,

There is lovely acting support from an alcoholic mother who if she wasn't alcoholic would be the type of mother every adolescent boy would love to have. And actually even being alcoholic still means you'd want her to be your mother!

On their road journey they meet a number of people including a bizarre and highly intelligent and religious family (again with a fascinating mother figure).

OK I could ramble on but really my message is give this a go!

Thanks

Yes, this is a thriller and, at times, very tense but it is much much more. It is also a very funny film. There are a couple of running gags throughout the film; listen for the references to the typewriter and whether to close the door or not. It almost verges on farce. And there are some one off gags; watch for the dog in the break in; an outright laugh out moment. It is also a very romantic film; there is love across both the age and class gap but I'm not going to spoil your viewing by revealing any more. So it works on many levels and for these reasons I'd recommend it. It is also a classic example of a film that if Hollywood decided to do a remake you just know they would ruin it.