dgeerts

I know, I know. This comment will not be looked kindly upon by all those (predominantly male 45+) viewers that gave this movie a 10.

Still ....

Shocking violence, rape and masturbation scenes. Yes. Long, rambling monologues about the reason of the universe. Check. G.V.D's (*) in about every sentence. Oh most definitely.

Altogether: hideously acted, very poorly filmed, incoherent, shocking only for the sake of shocking. In short pointless, painful to watch, surprisingly boring. The director should take up a more fitting job, say cleaning crude oil tankers. I fear for the careers of all actors/actresses involved.

(*) This means Godd*mm*t, you English-speaking people.

I saw this movie at the Rotterdam Film Festival early 2007. The first 5 minutes or so looked promising, but I quickly got bored, and finally I started resenting the film, the actors and most of all the director.

The movie consists of long drawn-out scenes of young, usually naked, people talking about their lives. The cinematography is OK. The scenery is quite gorgeous (hey ... it is Tuscany !). But watching young people you do not care about one bit talk endlessly and seemingly in circles quickly becomes boring and after that upsetting. Whether they are naked or not. In the end I felt like shouting at them to go get a job, go to college, get married, join the army, anything, but DO something.

In addition, I felt vaguely troubled by the pointless nudity of the young actors. The director blurted out before the movie started that he was "fascinated by the nude", and had found a "trusting community" where he could film what he wanted. It made me feel a bit ... dirty even watching it.

Easily the worst film I saw all year.

The final plot twist in "The Sixth Sense" made me wonder whether its director could repeat such a stunt, in "Unbreakable". Force us to follow the path he wants us to take, by telling his story, slowly, subtly leading us. Make us start to believe we know what will happen next, make us love the characters, then make us *want* things to happen next. Yes, tonight when seeing "Unbreakable", all that happens, again. And then, exactly like in "The Sixth Sense", he pulls the carpet right from under us, in the final seconds of the movie takes away everything, every expectation, he first gave us. Many people will be so disappointed by this that they will end up hating the movie. So did I, for about five minutes. Now I know the movie will make me think, literally move my thoughts, for a long time after tonight. I want to see it again, right now. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Hollywood has a new master storyteller. His name is Manoj Night Shyamalan.