I won't bother to duplicate other comments here - suffice it to say that I saw the film in the cinema, it held the (British) audience, and I thought it was excellent. I have no axe to grind re: Haneke, since this is the first film of his that I've had the chance to see. I'll be looking up the others.
I do have a few remarks to make in the light of some of the negative comments posted here.
If your benchmark for movie greatness is the pace of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or you require buckets of explicit gore, or explosions at five minute intervals, or you cannot survive in a cinema without a rock soundtrack, or you are not prepared to engage with credibly complex characters, simply don't bother to see this film - you will find it unbearably slow, quiet and boring. The opening credits, for example, pass in complete silence. A few short scenes that take place in complete darkness are soundtrack-only. Much of the film has a washed-out, bleached look that is the antithesis of the blockbuster. This is not 28 Days Later or even a Romero flick - though The Crazies comes close to an American take on a similar idea. This is not a movie made with a teenage dating audience in mind.
I suspect that that this film will be more resonant for European than for American audiences, but if you want to see a director and a great ensemble cast try to convey the disorientating reality of social breakdown - and the necessity of acts of imaginative reintegration - with slow-burning intensity but without resort to melodrama, this is well worth your time.
I do have a few remarks to make in the light of some of the negative comments posted here.
If your benchmark for movie greatness is the pace of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or you require buckets of explicit gore, or explosions at five minute intervals, or you cannot survive in a cinema without a rock soundtrack, or you are not prepared to engage with credibly complex characters, simply don't bother to see this film - you will find it unbearably slow, quiet and boring. The opening credits, for example, pass in complete silence. A few short scenes that take place in complete darkness are soundtrack-only. Much of the film has a washed-out, bleached look that is the antithesis of the blockbuster. This is not 28 Days Later or even a Romero flick - though The Crazies comes close to an American take on a similar idea. This is not a movie made with a teenage dating audience in mind.
I suspect that that this film will be more resonant for European than for American audiences, but if you want to see a director and a great ensemble cast try to convey the disorientating reality of social breakdown - and the necessity of acts of imaginative reintegration - with slow-burning intensity but without resort to melodrama, this is well worth your time.