Reviews

I am not going to spoil the contents to anyone, who has not yet watched this humble masterpiece by Kay Pollak.

A world famous conductor brilliantly played by Michael Nyqvist seeks peace from stress by moving back to his childhood village. The villagers, who has followed the genius in silence, are slowly tempting him to share of his greatness.

Each role in this movie, has a very specific purpose and shows a remarkable potential in each of the actors playing their own chord in short but precise words, a symphony of love.

Not love in the sense of relationship, but in the tone of the spirit deeply buried within each of the characters, each revealing their own present story, their needs, their skeletons, desires and much more.

I shall not forget to mention, the two main parts played by Frida Hallgren and Michael Nyqvist, whose dramas are played in unforgettable harmonies of emotional feedback. They touch each other with a pain connected in their own disability to love themselves.

Michael Nyqvist is really put to the test here in a very difficult setup, in one of those movies that either end up as catastrophic or fantastic. And fantastic it became from start to end, not one second less or more than enough, you are left with a feeling of change and a taste for more.

To this day, definitely one of the best movies I have had the pleasure of watching.

What may seem such an original idea is in fact built on a former classic drama, where the pharmaceutical world is a big hungry machine, and some insider turning to his better wits. Rachel Weisz gives a good performance playing the wife and victim of the conspiracy, Ralph Fiennes playing the insider (The role which in The Fugitive was played by Harrison Ford).

Even though I support the good performance by Rachel Weisz as a more refined, emotionally rich additive, I don't feel that Ralph Fiennes can add anything to the character, that Harrison Ford hasn't yet shown through his skilled ability to characterize a humble, loving and courageous man, going through terrible tests in attempt to reveal the truth.

In fact Fernando Meirelles attempted to copy the ethical setup from a directors wet dream (which have already won its own Oscars) - through all the valuable scenes and characters in such a degree, that I even got the feeling, I had seen this movie before somewhere else.

I completely respect an original idea, but stealing from a world-famous classic like "The Fugitive" is something, I have a hard time to forgive, unless Fernando Meirelles has something very new to add to the picture, which is unfortunately not the case here - Despite a great effort from the actors, I remain disappointed.

It doesn't strike me odd, that some may find this movie incredibly boring, while others find it incredibly giving.

I guess you have to be one of those, who has been gifted with an experience of true love and a deeper realization of one self, to really open up towards this sort of movie. I feel the director has chosen an open approach very close to reality, when choosing to focus on the emotional drama within each of the characters in the movie.

The director neither forgets to characterize the drama between the realm of the physical science world towards the emotional world - the drama which even to this day separates the therapists from the doctors.

While some directors choose to focus on the drama itself, I find this movie very interesting in the perspective of what is going on in the life of each individual - "You only see, what you wanna see", is so true, that it cannot be spelled often enough. The point is, that the director is NOT one of those spoiling the entire movie, by making everyone think and feel the same.

Everyone has their own version of their story, but the truly amazing part of the movie, is to show how each of us fight to survive the stories of our past, and to forgive ourselves the actions we can no longer change - we can still change how we choose to feel about our past - creating a lighter path for ourselves, and help each other understand that we are all connected, even though we may feel scared, struggling and cutoff from our reality.

Often these sort of dramas get carried away in the event of unhappiness and grief (where often some Christian God is involved). I am amazed how the director actually manages to turn away from such cliché's and focus on the will of recovering and reopening from various individual setbacks.

While our human life is a lot about doing and handling in this world, we shall not forget that is is always the feelings which drive us to our doings - not opposite. The director seems very aware of this, and I thank the creators for making a movie of those, that makes the heart beat much lighter.

The story itself, is trying to catch the energy and brutality of the comic book "La Foire aux immortels". I remember reading it, and even though that was about 20 years ago, it set a firm footprint in my mind. What really astonished me, was how the characters were accurately presented as in the comic book, I immediately felt the resemblance.

However, even the budget of this movie didn't allow a perfect animation of every computer animated character, it still kept the same cult-like atmosphere all through the movie.

Knowing the comic book, you'll probably think like me: Too much energy went on creating identical characters, rather than a story which fits into a moving picture - There's simply too much action, and very little background story.

The original comic book was drawn in a way, which allows fantastic and fantasy-like scenarios, however the movie was not able to deliver the same feeling. Knowing the original story, I believe the movie would have been rated higher than the average 6.0