A real-world tragedy deserves a respectful recounting of events. But this movie opted to reïmagine the dramatic Christmas flood of 1953 in an absurd fictional storyline where the plot and the characters are so shallow you start wondering what the problem is. De Storm fails as a historical film, fails as a drama and fails as a thriller.
The film promotes the dated idea that "a woman needs a man no matter how strong she is". Additionally, it praises idiotic actions of stupidity as "heroic rescue attempts". None of the actors managed to deliver their lines with any level of truth. And I would not have been able to muster the two stars I rated it if the special effects hadn't been this decent.
De Storm, in essence, is an insult to the victims of the flood and a disgrace to Dutch filmmaking. Tedious, disastrously dated and offending.
