p-seed-889-188469 This movie is stunningly made, has great acting and wonderful cinematography - what a shame all this talent is wasted on such a moronic story. I am struggling to find a single scene in this movie that made any sense what so ever. Everything every character does in this movie is absurd. The "story" concerns a boy who has the misfortune to have not only the most bizarre father in the world but also the most bizarre mother in the world. The father is a sociopath of the first order and the mother is just plain away with the pixies. It is unclear if the mother was raped or not, but whatever, the mother is happy enough to stay with the father for 6 weeks, then leaves when she finds she is pregnant, as you do. At their new house they find some old books, which the boy reads and becomes a genius, as you do. Despite being a genius when the boy gets older he buys a cigar store (as you do) way down an alley – clearly Marketing 101 was not included in the books he read. Despite the fact that it seems to be constantly raining, it is not apparent that the cigar shop floods every time it rains. Bizarrely, the previous owner of this shop, volunteers his contact information (as you do), so they can get his help if needed. Of course, this address is a fake. What is the point of that, apart from filling in a few minutes of the movie? Our hero is now in big trouble, he has taken out a loan to buy this ridiculous shop – obviously the Bank is as idiotic as he is. He finds to his horror that the bank is owned by his father. For some reason this is seen to be bad, although quite frankly he owes his Father a big thank you for funding such a ridiculous investment. He fronts up to the lawyers and in a spectacular travesty of optical theory is almost blinded by the reflection from the nice shiny brass name plaques. Here he meets a guy with a pronounced underbite - the point of this abnormality is a mystery - is it supposed to be funny? On his way out some English visitors arrive. Since our hero has read a couple of random English books he is a whiz at fluent spoken English in any situation. Despite the fact that the Dutch and the English seem to be communicating fine without him for some reason the boy's wondrous command of English saves the day and he is immediately given a job. Notwithstanding that his father is supposed to be a raving maniac who throws sick women into the road, he allows his son an incredibly generous repayment scheme. Despite this generosity for some reason we are supposed to think the Father is treating him badly. The son duly pays off his debt to his father and blow me down if he doesn't immediately take out another, larger loan from him, under ridiculously draconian terms. Apparently this is to prove something, but all it proves to me is that the boy is an idiot. Yet again we are supposed to think that this act of stupidity on the part of the son is another demonstration of the evilness of the Father. The son works his way up the firm and finally gets his legal degree. There are various diversions along the way. Some flossy is hanging round him in the office but because the boy has the emotional age of a 2 year old he doesn't do anything about that. This flossy invites herself back to his place (as you do) and immediately finds a door that the son had never noticed. We are introduced to a guy called Jan, who is a communist, but he does nothing in the movie apart from adding 10 minutes of padding. The bizarre father attempts to evict someone in the middle of a battle zone, as you do. For some reason a man steps out to shoot the father. For some reason he misses, from a distance of about 3 feet. A soldier then shoots this person. The boy randomly meets his father in an alley. They fight. The father throws a penknife, as you do. Evidently Rotterdam is a very small place, possibly about 100 square meters. The son and father just happen to meet in an alley. The father just happens to emerge from a canal opposite the mother's house. The son just happens to run into his flossy on the beach. He just happens to run into again later on in a park with his mother. The only scene in which we might get some insight to the Father is in a dream. Ultimately it means nothing. The father visits the mother and implies he is being mean to the son to build his character. Yes, that's right, after being brought up in poverty, being abused all his life for having no father and with a nut case of a mother for company, we wouldn't want him to be soft would we? Eventually the son leaps over a desk at his father (as you do), his father beats the living daylights out of him, and later kills himself with a penknife that would be lucky to penetrate his coat. The son is brought to the Police Station and interviewed by two of the nicest, most trustworthy men you could hope to meet. Our hero regales them with his life story, as you do in this type of situation. Eventually the son is proved innocent using forensic evidence the technology for which didn't exist in that era. I could go on, but you get the idea.

Boba_Fett1138 I was profoundly impressed with this Oscar winning Dutch movie. It features a strong and greatly compelling story, strong characters, fine acting, great production values and whatever more. A true masterpiece in my book!It's mostly a story and character driven movie. This might sound boring to some but let me tell you that "Karakter" is anything from boring, unlike most other Dutch productions within the same genre. It's a real exciting psychological thriller, without really featuring any action or much dialog in it. Mike van Diem does an amazing job telling the movie its story. He just doesn't only did a great job with its story but also with the movie its look and atmosphere and he got the best out of the actors.The movie is also really made by it's acting. The acting was surprisingly great within the entire movie, which already is a big accomplishment for any Dutch production. Fedja van Huêt, despite his young age, carries the movie really well and he has probably already played the role out of his career in this movie, even though his career obviously isn't over yet. Same goes for Jan Decleir. He plays one of the most complicated and memorable villain role out of movie history, I kid you not. Even though he is not the type of movie villain who kills or uses violence, he is more ruthless in the way his personality is and how he subtly moves around and is important throughout the movie, by giving his son a hard accomplishing anything in life. An even bigger accomplishment from Decleir when considering how few lines he actually has throughout the movie. Yeah it might sound weird but he reminded me a lot of Darth Vader from the Star Wars movies. He's just as cold and ruthless, doesn't show any emotions, walks around with a long cape and in the end his character seeks redemption with his son.The movie is set in the the 1920's Rotterdam. The movie has a nice impressive historical look over it and does an amazing job reconstructing Rotterdam of the 1920's, even though the movie didn't got filmed in Rotterdam itself, which isn't anything too surprising considering Rotterdam got bombed heavily during WW II and almost all of the old city heart is completely gone now days and the city is filled with modern buildings and skyscrapers now days. Normally it's very small scaled and perhaps even a bit embarrassing to look at a Dutch movie that tries to recreate a different much older time period. Mostly they'll trow one old car in a sequences, with 10 people walking around in old clothes and that's it. But "Karakter" is however very detailed with its look and overall atmosphere.Besides the movie its look and overall cinematography and directing I also really liked the movie its editing, which kept the movie going at all times. It uses some nice cutting tricks to achieve this and it really helps to make this movie an exciting one to watch.It's a movie that sucks you right in its story and doesn't ever let you go. You'll forget everything around you and won't be able to get your eyes of the screen, or even blink for that matter. The movie doesn't feature a story I would normally like within a movie, especially not from a Dutch movie but "Karakter" just does basically everything right to grab you and suck you right into it. An haunting, beautiful, impressive movie, that you'll won't easily forget.10/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

MartinHafer This was a great film and was also my first exposure to Dutch cinema. The film is sort of like a combination of David Copperfield, Les Miserables and a murder mystery! The film starts with an argument. You have no idea who the two people are and it culminates with one of them being accused by the police of killing the other. I was completely taken by surprise by the direction the movie took from there as was told in a series of flashbacks and it became like a Horatio Alger film about an ambitious but poor man working hard to succeed. One of the other main characters is an apparently sadistic and rigid man (who seems a lot like Inspector Javert from Les Miserables). Throughout much of the movie, he appears to be quite misunderstood by the ambitious young guy (who, it turns out is the "bad guy's" bastard son). To me, this disturbed and bitter old man was the most interesting element in the story. The young guy was driven by success and anger towards his biological father--that is clear. But the complex and odd motivations of the father are much less clear and open to debate--and THAT'S what helps make this a stand-out movie to me.NOTE for parents. This movie is rated R--mostly for some violence and a brief distant shot of a naked man. I would not have been surprised if it had been rated PG-13, as the violence was not that intense and the nudity was neither gratuitous or overly explicit. This film would probably be okay for a mature teenager to watch.

MusicalAnime I really liked this movie a lot. Sometimes i'll come back and refer to this movie when talking to well mostly my father. There was something about this movie that captivates you from the start. Your thrown in halfway in the movie without Much of knowing what's going on. The story slows down and you get to see struggles with a father and son story. This movie has a wonderful script, and very good lines. It is a very smart film that i think is just really good. It gives you a sense of how things were there, and how you can love someone and hate them at the same time. Or how you can love someone but never tell them of that love and yet they know. It's sad letting go and when bad things happen to you, you eventually are left to face the love in a form of anguish and hate.