I wanted to give this film a chance, especially considering its unusually short duration - only 90 minutes (which in the end felt like 3hrs).
The plot of the film is simple: a mother has a miscarriage, and to honor the memory of the child, she decides to donate her milk to mothers in need. However, she can't do it through official channels because, despite her milk being harmless, there are bureaucratic hurdles. So, she posts an ad on the internet. That's it.
I'm not a writer, but I know that when you write any piece, even a biography, you need to create a narrative arc to give purpose to the story: beginning, problem, climax, resolution, end.
The film actually seems to go nowhere. Unfortunately, the Dutch seem robotic and lack depth: when they do comedies, they're cheesy; when they do dramas, they're superficial.
First of all, the film starts with the miscarriage already happened. And frankly, I laughed when the doctor - in all his Dutch compassion - tries to console the couple by saying, "jaaa, it is what it is."
The director doesn't give us time to build the psychology of the characters and understand why the mother is so morbidly attached to the baby - they could have used 20 minutes of the endless subsequent silences to at least develop the story a little: maybe showing that the mother was somehow terminal and that was her legacy, or because she could not have more children, something!.
For three-quarters of the film, it gets lost in the silences of this woman who goes around without saying a word or understanding her thoughts.
(silences should be used when they are meaningful. Inserting people eating their botherham kaas without saying a word, doesn't make the movie necessarily deep).
Her husband, instead of being the man of the situation and bringing his wife back to reality, accepts and indulges - obviously silently - every whim of the woman who ends up collecting 20 LITERS of milk, for which he even buys another refrigerator (this is not grief, this is pathology!).
Did we really became so incapable of handling situations?
The film has no moral, no message, no central knot, no arc, no characters to empathize with, it has NOTHING.
It only shows an extremely egotic and selfish girl - even the altruism of "giving" is actually done for a totally selfish purpose (in fact, in the end, this girl FORCES a mother to take her milk just showing up to her door after she REFUSED).
A totally childish girl, incapable of managing any emotion, which forces everyone around her to feel like her and obey her whims (starting with the submissive and insignificant husband).
Unfortunately, this film is somewhat a mirror of Dutch society: arrogant, egocentric, and commanding "empowered" women - who, as women, are incapable of managing emotions or acting rationally - and men who - instead of being men and bringing them to reason - are subservient to them and indulge their whims.
The fact that the film is directed by a woman doesn't necessarily make it good; if a film is poorly made, it's poorly made.
My judgment? Pretentious, superficial, pointless, arrogant work.
The plot of the film is simple: a mother has a miscarriage, and to honor the memory of the child, she decides to donate her milk to mothers in need. However, she can't do it through official channels because, despite her milk being harmless, there are bureaucratic hurdles. So, she posts an ad on the internet. That's it.
I'm not a writer, but I know that when you write any piece, even a biography, you need to create a narrative arc to give purpose to the story: beginning, problem, climax, resolution, end.
The film actually seems to go nowhere. Unfortunately, the Dutch seem robotic and lack depth: when they do comedies, they're cheesy; when they do dramas, they're superficial.
First of all, the film starts with the miscarriage already happened. And frankly, I laughed when the doctor - in all his Dutch compassion - tries to console the couple by saying, "jaaa, it is what it is."
The director doesn't give us time to build the psychology of the characters and understand why the mother is so morbidly attached to the baby - they could have used 20 minutes of the endless subsequent silences to at least develop the story a little: maybe showing that the mother was somehow terminal and that was her legacy, or because she could not have more children, something!.
For three-quarters of the film, it gets lost in the silences of this woman who goes around without saying a word or understanding her thoughts.
(silences should be used when they are meaningful. Inserting people eating their botherham kaas without saying a word, doesn't make the movie necessarily deep).
Her husband, instead of being the man of the situation and bringing his wife back to reality, accepts and indulges - obviously silently - every whim of the woman who ends up collecting 20 LITERS of milk, for which he even buys another refrigerator (this is not grief, this is pathology!).
Did we really became so incapable of handling situations?
The film has no moral, no message, no central knot, no arc, no characters to empathize with, it has NOTHING.
It only shows an extremely egotic and selfish girl - even the altruism of "giving" is actually done for a totally selfish purpose (in fact, in the end, this girl FORCES a mother to take her milk just showing up to her door after she REFUSED).
A totally childish girl, incapable of managing any emotion, which forces everyone around her to feel like her and obey her whims (starting with the submissive and insignificant husband).
Unfortunately, this film is somewhat a mirror of Dutch society: arrogant, egocentric, and commanding "empowered" women - who, as women, are incapable of managing emotions or acting rationally - and men who - instead of being men and bringing them to reason - are subservient to them and indulge their whims.
The fact that the film is directed by a woman doesn't necessarily make it good; if a film is poorly made, it's poorly made.
My judgment? Pretentious, superficial, pointless, arrogant work.
