Reviews

This was one of the most idiotic movies I have ever seen. Too many people introduced to quickly, too many flashbacks. Most of the time I could not follow a stoty;inr, if there was any.

We watched The Outsider because of its high ratings, especially the 10s. We have realized that those reviewers have totally different sensibilities than we do. They apparently think, and even feel, nothing about extreme violence, particularly long graphic gruesome scenes of finger amputations and throat slittings. The entire film seems to be filmed in slow motion in dim blue light. Of course, we can not say for sure because we exceeded our limits for gore, sadism, and general psychotic/sociopathic behavior lovingly lingered upon. We bailed and read the remainder of the plot on Wikipedia. Advise you do the same.

The author and director both should have enough IQ and sensitivity to understand the original.

Adaptation can enhance the impact of a work. Example is the 1955 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's historical play of the same name, by Laurence Olivier.

In this case it failed badly. The choice of actors, alternatively whispering and screaming.

Intimate, graphical insets which detracts from the real drama.

Attempt to change the character of the hero. All that are mortal sins.

Author-director should have written his own play not be a parasite of a totally different drama .

I would also ask for pain and suffering, not just for the movie, but for all the credits after the movie, which list on only all friends, and good restaurants in Baja Mexico, but also friends of friends...

The use of sextant was cute, particularly since he was able to use during the day, with cloudy sky.

One wonders what century this movie was supposed to happen. My cell phone with GPS can determine coordinates, anywhere on the planet,day or night.

WKIPEDIA: SOS today has specific frequency. Ships and coastal stations would normally have required quiet times twice an hour to listen for priority signals. However, many merchant vessels carried only one or two radio operators in which case the SOS may not be heard by operators off duty. Eventually equipment was invented to summon off-duty operators by ringing an alarm in the operators berth. This was triggered by the operator of the ship in distress transmitting twelve long dashes of four seconds duration each. These were sent prior to the SOS hopefully ringing the automatic alarm in ships so equipped. If possible a short delay was given before transmission of the SOS proper. This was to give those off watch operators time to get to their radio office.

Difficult to suspend disbelief !

We saw this film when it was first released in Prague, bought the screenplay in Czech, and now own the DVD. This masterpiece from the father-son Sverák team is a gentle low-key story that has appealed here to all ages. It was the most popular movie of the year in terms of theater attendance. The theme is "the search for love" in its very broadest sense, with the sub-theme of the impact of freedom and capitalism on lives in the Czech Republic.

The main character, sixty-five year old Josef Tkaloun, introduces the theme in his classroom of Czech teenagers. In his lesson about a beloved Czech writer, Jaroslav Vrchlicky, he quotes: "For a little love, I would go to the edge of the world bareheaded and barefooted." We follow this theme in his own life and marriage, his daughter's and little grandson's lives, as well as in those of various other characters, young, middle-aged, and elderly, who surround him.

Neither Zdenek Sverák as a writer nor the character of Tkaloun he has written for himself is a judgmental man. Tkaloun's most characteristic response perhaps, is a quiet, "Jo takhle" or "Ah, so that's how it is." Sverák sketches a small world and, within it, gives us a very poignant human story permeated with a feeling of acceptance of all of us in our various weaknesses.

The sub-theme of changes in Czech life since the 1989 revolution may be harder for non-Czech viewers to catch entirely. The local library, for example, has been replaced by a new teeth-whitening business called "Happy Smile." In this one little touch, Czechs will recognize the loss of their public library, the introduction of a strange, expensive, and hitherto unnecessary business, and the current vogue for abandoning Czech for the snobbier, more chic English name.

We also see how the very young, without memories of the "old" days, consider all this as the normal state of affairs, though they realize that their parents or grandparents do not. In a small closely-knit society such as the Czech Republic, relations between generations, whether within the family, at work or school, or in public, have been markedly different in many ways than what one sees in a country such as the U.S. This is now changing with the influx of dubbed television programs, translated popular magazine articles, and advertising. Many youngsters now prefer to go to the mall rather than on the traditional family trip to the countryside, for example. Although most still automatically get up to give their tram or metro seat to an older person, some now ignore this previous mark of well-brought-up behavior.

We should mention, too, that we find the humor delightful. Even on a third viewing we laughed. These performances stand up in the long run.

This movie will definitely be a classic. Thank you Zdenek and Jan Sverák!!!

The other reviewer noted:

It is happening in non-existent time (20th century, perhaps) and is based on Nostradamus prophecies

S/he also said:

"Some of the costumes of the film are strange looking, especially if your not familiar with European culture.

There is Czech folk outfits, men with feather hats and other strange gypsy like clothes.."

Here I differ: If you are familiar with Czech (or rather Slovak or Ukrainian) culture, history and customs,

you will find the costumes even more strange than the story.

That does not bother me; I like a good fantasy:

Example of a good fantasy (a fairy tale, using Czech/German folklore is The Brothers Grimm (2005)

"..Not quite the story of the Brothers Grimm I know..

Shot in Prague, Czech Republic, the film is dark, yet beautiful. .." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0355295/

The problem with this movie is not that authors invented a parallel universe.

Problem is that they packed the movie with exaggerated episodes of all what is wrong with many regional Czech/Slovak movies: It is mostly about getting drunk, incoherent pub shouting and eating with intensity but not finesse of a food-porno movie.

All that with necessary pig-slaughter ceremony rendered in naturalistic details with lots of blood and gore and - eh - bad manners.

I suppose some people may like such naturalistic scenes. I had to fast-forward trough most of them. I do not recommend this movie, particularly not for gentle souls.

Disappointing and irritating. The screenwriter has no true understanding of human nature but instead strings together clichés in a disjointed fashion. Character is not explored in depth. These are puppets plunked down in a plot he openly confesses needed a dramatic element, the mother's affair with her daughter's lover.

Anne Reid gives an excellent performance in spite of being given some peculiar situations and lines, such standing passively to allow her angry daughter to slug her in the eye. The script portrays Darren (Daniel Craig) as a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde without any hints about why, except that he snorts cocaine before the big scene.

A mature writer could have done so much more with this topic.