Eldorado

A middle-aged man returns to his home in rural Belgium to find that it has been broken into, with a stranger hiding under his bed. He initially threatens the intruder, who refuses to come out, with violence and calling the police. When the stranger eventually emerges, he is found to be a scared young man purportedly seeking to return to his parents after overcoming a heroin addiction. His parents live on the other side of the country, and the older man offers to give him a lift.

The ensuing road movie begins conventionally, with gradual bonding and chance meetings with various eccentrics as the Belgian landscape offers some choice cinematography opportunities. Although these initial encounters are mildly engaging and occasionally humorous, three incidents in the latter half challenge the low-key nature of the preceding action. This change of direction lends the film a more serious weight and a dark, meaty substance in place of a morality tale.

An impressive piece of work, especially given the short running time (around 80 minutes). The older man is played by Bouli Lanners, who also writes and directs.

After some disappointing films during a french film festival in my city this film was a complete change. Just a few characters are needed to transport couple of message to the audience. There are a lot of funny though short dialogs. The landscape they re riding through is really lovely and the scenes are not exaggeratively long. The soundtrack just fits perfect especially since Devendra Banhart provides the song for the most sad scene of the film, Yvan helps Ellie to dig the garden of Ellies mom, who hasn't seen him for ages. You really get moved to tears in this very moment. Well, although Yvan is sure that Ellie is a drug addict, he helps him. At the end it becomes true but there is no explicit message the film sends to the viewer, you can judge on your own, no moral oppression thus.

A man who imports used American cars to Belgium catches a young burglar who he begrudgingly befriends...we find out later that he had recently lost his younger brother to drugs and feels some rapport.

This movie is hard to rate...if it hadn't gone on so long it would have gotten a 10---but the last 30 minutes are kind of out of gas.

Let me say one thing about the dog scene...it took a lot of daring for the director to do this. However, animal cruelty no matter how it is twisted in unfunny.

The essence of this kind of movie is bizarreness turned into comedy. If you find the idea of importing used American cars amusing you will understand this movie. I love these things and this one was done well. Except as I mentioned the dog scene.

The movie used digital techniques for the sky and other scenery but it was beautiful anyway. Computers mean some really beautiful landscapes.

In the end? Very good especially the nudist scene and others. Mentally sublimate if you can the dog part because the rest of it is really spot on.

RECOMMEND

This is a humorous film with a serious subtext. Bouli Lanners knows better than to befriend a young burglar he finds in his house, but, even though he's convinced the kid is a drug addict, he does anyway. He's got his reasons, which come out slowly. The two set off on a cross country (Belgium that is) road trip and meet some strange characters, including an elderly nudist, a psychic, and others. Each scene contains an interesting encounter, and the countryside is filmed beautifully. Bouli's behavior seems irrational throughout, but at the end you piece together why he does what he does, and you reread the film in your head.

A little trivia. Bouli Lanners played a role in Asterix at the Olympics, alongside Alain Delon. Apparently Delon was such a jerk that Lanners stole his folding chair on the set. Well, the chair shows up here where it belongs to the ridiculous old nudist who sits in it throughout his scenes. Apparently Alain is none too happy...

The beautiful Belgian landscapes, whether the plains (I guess those were shot in Flanders) or the hilly country side of the Ardennes, are clearly the main attraction of this film. It's also rare to see the run-down mostly red brick houses typical to Wallonia in a movie.

When it comes to the plot, there are quirky moments which are worth a chuckle or a fright, but in general this film is rather long-winded, making it boring at a few instances even if it only has a run-time of roughly 80 minutes.

Nonetheless it has its touching moments, especially when both protagonists visit one of them's parents and the end scenes.

But in the end Eldorado is not a film I would recommend, except to people who are fond of Belgium.