amirborgheie this film makes me sure that Netherlands still has something to say in film world. the movie contains terrific moments of love.I love Carice van Houten that is really a great actress. An actress full of different emotions. her beauty will catch you and power of her playing will enchant you. I can't forget her look when when she was full of sorrows .Her tears in the film really tease you,stimulate your sympathy .I should say the film as a whole belongs to CARMEN ROLE . it 's film of various feelings. you can watch different angles of life of a person that suffers from cancer and all problems that encircle her.the director directs very good.Even you can say the film is film of power of acting. but the only fault of director or Screenwriter is, if we can say, over- returning of Stijn to second love after cutting the relationships.this subject happens several times and i think it hurts the reality of storyline.

Sharon Porat No one is perfect, and no married couple can claim to even come close. This movie deals exactly with that - two people fall in love, believe they've met 'the one' and get married. After that they need to deal with life and with each other - his character, her medical condition for example. Each of us deals with problems/issues in his life in a different way. Most of us aren't completely good or bad, we simply try to cope with items life/fate/God lands on us. The same goes with the 2 main characters of the movie. It was extremely hard for me to identify with any one of them due to their character and reactions to the other and everything around, but it was extremely easy to imagine how those things are possible - and who of my friends belong to each type. The movie is realistic, sincere and shines a bright light on what lies beneath almost every marriage. Nothing is static, and the main characters evolve and change while having to cope - with life and each other. I found the movie captivating - definitely it could happen to any of us, and I'm waiting to see it again on Blu-Ray/DVD.

dguy I went to see this movie because I heard a lot of news about it and knowing the book was quite successful. Knowing it was directed by Reinout Oerlemans I had some doubts but anyway I thought I should see it with an open mind. It totally disappointed me and did not reach a level above the average soap opera.First the character Stijn. He started out in the movie as a good looking guy working in an advertising company. The movie pretends he is a 'succesfull' guy but in reality he is an empty headed person not even past his puberty making dumb commercials and cheating on his wife without any remorse. It is not even clear why he loves her, the only thing mentioned she is good-looking and sexy and probably that is the only thing that matters in Stijn's mind. Stijn's cheating goes on through all the movie and only the in the end when is wife is dying he becomes loyal for a short period. Actually he is quite lucky she dies and does not have a chronic disease, shortly after her death he calls Roos to make up probably.Then Carmen, she seems to be a bit more smart and emotionally developed than her husband but still accepts his cheating. At one point she seems to get wise and wants a divorce. Unfortunately she is not that strong willed and it takes Stijn not more than a few days to talk her out of it. Yes he again gets away with his cheating as real womanizer should, is he supposed to be 'cool' for this or just a jerk who does not respect women !?!? I still can't understand what their happiness consists of besides a self-indulgent feeling of having an important or good career, yuppie friends and parties, and of course their daughter. To me they seem two under aged children not able commit to each other and to develop a relationship which goes deeper than sex and having a laugh together.Finally I also have some good points about the movie, there are some nice scenes especially by Carmen (Carice van Houten), the first is the car scene and the second of course the dying scene which are both well acted a filmed and actually give some worth to the movie. Another strong point is the speed of the story and the cool disco and sex scenes, they give some of the younger audience some entertainment although they distract from the main storyline. My conclusion is that it will be a nice flick for the 16 year old-s, but anyone over 25 with any intelligence should avoid this !

korenwolf-1 Just saw the movie tonight and it leaves me with mixed feelings. It tells of a woman in the prime of her life being destroyed by cancer and the way this disease affects herself as well as her loved ones. The movie shows you some of the harsh realities of a family fighting breast cancer, the horrid struggle of adapting to a life which has become so much different from the life they were used to. The subject matter reminded me somewhat of the 1993 movie 'My Life', but then being a much more raw and honest version that doesn't leave out the ugly parts like chemotherapy scarring, throwing up and changes in ones personality and social life.The movie is divided in three parts, with the last twenty minutes of the movie being the most to my liking. It begins by (unfortunately very shortly) summarizing the background story to the relationship of Carmen and Stijn, a successful yuppie couple somewhere in their thirties, who live in Amsterdam and have a little daughter together. They both work at an advertising firm and have developed a successful career and loving (though sometimes troubled) marriage. Then cancer kicks in and we see them struggling with the diagnose.At what might be called "the end of the beginning of Carmen's cancer", the second part of the movie starts. The main storyteller of this movie is not Carmen but her husband Stijn and the second part of the movie turns more to Stijn's adultery than to Carmen's struggle. Instead of showing Stijn and Carmen's difficulties as their way of life together changes, we follow Stijn indulging in an extreme amount of escapism. This is regrettable as the way this is portrayed makes the movie become like a screaming MTV clip with excessive amounts of nudity, loud and mostly unnecessary background music to almost every moment that involves emotion and a roller-coaster type of storytelling that jumps from one highlight to the other without leaving room for contemplation or thorough character development. As a viewer you're interested in what Carmen's cancer does to the family as a whole, how it affects Carmen's relationship to Stijn, their daughter and each other, but this is hardly shown in a way that get's the viewer emotionally involved. Therefore the second part is were the movie takes a wrong turn in terms of focus and storytelling, as the movie shows us little of these deeper emotional developments. Stijn's adultery should have just been a background to tell us more of their struggle as a family, but instead it's Carmen's fight that seems to become no more than an excuse for showing more and more of Stijn's wild life and infidelity. In my opinion the story of Stijn's adultery could have been told in far less scenes than this movie uses, and still have retained it's touch while also leaving some room for more balanced character development. We see minutes of Stijn having sex with Roos in all possible positions, but only seconds of Stijn supporting Carmen as she suffers an emotional breakdown. Even worse, the way Carmen's sickness affects her role as a mother and Stijn's role as a father to their little daughter is hardly even spoken of. As we as a viewer are meant to believe Stijn's escapism springs forth from his love for his wife and loss of control of the situation, it would have made sense to show more of his feelings for his wife, instead of making them seem like an unwelcome distraction from the story of Stijn's sex life. I haven't read the book, so I'm not sure if there's any deviations from it, but to me the way the story tends to focus more on the male character Stijn than on his wife Carmen and daughter Luna is a shame, especially since the final part of this movie is so well done. This final part of the movie, which *SPOILER* might be called "the beginning of the end for Carmen" is much slower, focuses more on their bond, their daughter and Stijn's role as a father and husband. It's tragic, intense and very moving. I could only have hoped the whole movie would have been filmed this way, with attention to details and deeper emotions instead of just showing endless scenes of Stijn's sexual frustration and anger.So I'd like to conclude by saying this is a pretty good movie, with a strong subject matter, that unfortunately loses focus along the way and exposes some serious storytelling issues, for which even a strong ending doesn't make up completely. I therefore have mixed feelings, as I can't help but wonder that because as a viewer you feel sympathy for the touching subject matter, you feel an urge to overlook it's flaws in terms of story and the way it's brought to the screen. A truly good movie however, enhances the subject matter instead of constantly deviating from it. The movie is called "A woman goes to the doctor", *SPOILER* but sadly a better title would have been "A male adulterer doesn't change, no matter what".