The Discovery of Heaven

It's been a long time since I've been impressed by dutch movies. I think Jeroen Krabbe managed to create a pice of art by filming this movie, after the book of Harry Mulish. I have not read the book, but I am convinced mr. Mulish will be proud of the end result. Beforehand, I was a bit sceptical about Stephen Fry, but all prejudice was unjust: this is a perfect cast. Unfortunately Jeroen appeared in this movie as Gabriel, his dutch accent makes his english sound funny. Luckily he had just a few few lines. In the spirit of dutch movies a lot of naked people, but everything was filmed with class.

In a tv interview, Jeroen recently told that people would talk to him on the streets, just to thank him for making this movie. If I would come across him in Amsterdam, I would do the same.

A must-see!

I went to see Discovery of Heaven with a lot of anticipation. Having read the book it's based on by Harry Mulisch, and loving it, I really wanted this picture to succeed. But you've got to be honest and understand that a 900 page epic spanning 3 generations and so many different locations is impossible to translate to a movie no longer than about 135 min., right?.. Wrong!! I'm extremely pleased to say that Jeroen Krabbé has done the -almost- impossible and pulled it off! He translated the book into an amazing piece of cinema wich sets new standards for motion-picture in the Netherlands, and may well be one of the best foreign language films of this year.

Just like the book, the movie has so many layers on wich it works. You've got the wonderful, extremely well acted, roles of Onno Quist (Stephen Fry), Max Delius (Greg Wise) and Ada Brons (Flora montgomery). And although they all acted very well, it was Stephen Fry's role wich is most memorable. With extreme charisma and charm he brings the role of the exentric Onno to life in a magnificent way. Then there is the screenplay, wich so brilliantly succeeds in summarazing the book and making sure all the important elements of the book are in place. And better still, it adds to the book on numorous levels, giving extra emotion to key scenes and extra meaning to certain themes. The screenwriter Edwin de Vries had a difficult task but he succeeded, with help of Mulisch himself, in creating a captivating story wich never bores throughout.

I could go on much longer now, covering about any aspect of the picture (most of it with praise), but I won't. I just want to finish with a big thanks to Krabbé and the whole crew who worked on this picture. You've pulled it off brilliantly, and brought a bright shining light in the otherwise often relatively dull Dutch Cinema.

Final score, a solid 9 out of 10!

First of all, I am obliged to say my view on this movie was somewhat coloured, because the novel this movie is based on is one of my favourites and I know it by heart.

If you have read the novel, you should watch this movie really open-minded. The novel is a 900+-pages book with a lot of details and symbolism which you cannot completely explain in a 2-hour movie. However, the main story line and the highlights have been pretty well preserved, although the plot has been simplified and explained a bit.

On the other hand, if you haven't read the novel, I'm not too sure whether or not this is such a great movie. Of course, at no point the picture gets boring or inexplicable, but because so much details of the novel have been left away, the true meaning of the book and the real mission of the main character get drowned in the special effects and the smooth directing.

In the end, I'd have to give this movie a 9 out of 10, with one of the main drawbacks being the length: if this picture has lasted for another hour or two, the power of the novel would have remained so much more intact.

Of course, the book was too good to make it into a movie. Nevertheless, the film is entertaining for non-readers and is above all, it's an equivocal enterprise. Acting is not very convincing (ada is terrible played, and humiliating is the acting of Krabbé himself, why does he always want to be "in the picture"?). The book is 900 pages and you can't fit that in two hours. The magical atmosphere, the unreal aura, and the creative style are not recognizable in the film. For example; the interventions from God and his angels are ridiculous as you see the film, where in the book, it's strange, magical and structuring. Another example; the friendship between Onno and Max is heavenly in the book, fragmentary in the film. For me, it was a 6/10; if you want a 10/10 go and read the book. But i know, it's "time-consuming" as they say, and time still seems to be money, bullsh*t of course! Time is life, time is the discovery of a heavenly book...

Holland seems to squeeze out a couple of good films every once in a while, like Soldier of Orange or Left Luggage. The Discovery of Heaven is another one. Again directed (like Left Luggage) by Jeroen Krabbé (who also stars (AGAIN)). I can understand that the film is not for everybody, but I liked it, even though I am of the generation that is used to big explosions, a lot of action and no story. The film is in English, so you won't have to struggle with that stupid Dutch and I sincerely thank Krabbé for filming Harry Mulisch's classic book entirely in English, for otherwise, I would not have seen it. It sure is the best Dutch film of the 21st century. Keep it up.

7 out of 10