reviewsNo romkoms from the Dutch film stable this week, but a comic drama with Elise Schaap and a Netflix thriller with Holly Mae Brood. But both this Saskia Noort film adaptation Strombolican be seen in cinemas from Thursday, as the new Dutch Netflix title The Takeover are quite disappointing according to film reporter Gudo Tienhooven. Two critical reviews.
Saskia Noort film adaptation little more than a folder for self-help gurus
Sara (Elise Schaap) storms the Italian volcanic island of Stromboli with a narcissistic ‘how can I rot it’ attitude. She has a quickie with a handsome bartender, gets into a booze with an equally unstable Brit, argues with the locals and accidentally nearly sets her guest house up in flames.
It is clear that this woman has something to clean up between her ears. Especially when flashbacks are sprinkled in which she argues with her ex-husband and teenage daughter. Partly because of the somewhat bold game and the irritatingly coquettish film music, it is still questionable how seriously we should take Sara and her inner demons. Very serious, it soon turns out.
The tipping point comes when a scary self-help guru, the Swede Jens, lures her to a retreat. Then the film, after the book of the same name by Saskia Noort, says goodbye to irony. Jens’ methods work, also for the rest of the group, which mainly consists of characters instead of real people. That he manages to do this quite easily with some floating exercises, a pinch of yoga and slogans such as ‘let go of that fear’ and ‘follow your heart’ (again, the irony is gone by then), is completely unbelievable.
miss
As a result, when Sara’s trauma is above water, the impact is missing. That is not the fault of protagonist Elise Schaap, who proves after My Dad Is An Airplane again to be able to carry a spirited role with verve. She also knows how to juggle seriousness, sarcasm and gossip.
Michiel van Erp van . sat in the director’s chair Ramses and Nobody in the City, a very gifted film, series and documentary maker with hardly any mistakes to his name. This is unfortunately one.
Directed by: Michiel van Erp. Starring: Elise Schaap, Pieter Embrechts, Tim McInnerny and Christian Hillborg
Clumsy digi-thriller inadvertently makes you laugh
Frank Lammers of the Jumbo commercials as a renowned cybercriminal? The character Thomas, played by Géza Weisz, doesn’t understand it. ‘In movies, hackers are always thinner and younger’, it sounds halfway The Takeover indignant. Funny, because the deviant cast Lammers in a supporting role is the only bright spot in this clumsy and with seriously dated clichés densely filled digi-thriller that often unintentionally tickles the laughter.
Main character Mel (Holly Mae Brood), who is suddenly suspected of murder after discovering a privacy scandal and then sprints for a break throughout the film, is indeed that typical film hacker: slovenly type, hooded sweater, backpack, a little conceited. As soon as she starts typing, she is assisted by beeps and beeps on the soundtrack. And when she has a brilliant idea, the image suddenly fills with colored lines that probably represent the inside of a computer case, as the camera spins wildly around her. This was already borderline clumsy The Net with Sandra Bullock from 1995.
Woody phrases like “We need to get to the server room where I can prove I’m innocent!” don’t make it any better. With the Tuesday released internationally on Netflix The Takeover makes the Netherlands a favored figure.
Directed by: Annemarie van de Mond. Leading roles: Holly Mae Brood, Géza Weisz, Frank Lammers and Noortje Herlaar
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