The Successor

It is a very strange film.

I've gone into it blind (no synopsis, no trailer). The start of the film was promising: nice cinematography, superb music score, seemingly intriguing story. Unfortunately, after Ellias arrives at his estranged father's home it all goes south (it's almost like two different films from that point).

I can grasp and begin to understand the intentions of writers and of the main messages of the story, but it just... meh?

There is no tension in this film. The choice not to have any musical sound should have been accompanied with some sort of, I don't know, - colour, cinematographic choices, that would emphasize the tension. Throughout the film I just kept thinking "oh that just happened; oh, right, that happened as well; what is happening; why is it happening; can it all end now? No? Not yet? Not even now?"

As a woman, I could neither empathize with the main character nor pity him. The ending was just a bit sad about the father's friend, but OK for Ellias. I mean, he lost all his integrity as a human being, there was no other way to finish the film.

Perhaps, I am too biased, but I have seen better dramas, better thrillers, better psychological horror, better satirical films, better judgemental films, better home-made feeling films. In part, this one suffers from not knowing what genre it wants to be. That's what I believe.