This is a strange movie, don't expect anything like a feel-good coming-out story or a movie about romantic passionate gay love. In that respect the title "Skoonheid" (which is "Beauty" in African) is a bit misleading, since it seems to suggest something pretty. It's really not, this is a very dark, disturbing and depressing movie.
An older husband and father, who already leads a hidden double life, gets obsessively infatuated with his daughters beautiful boyfriend (hence probably the title "Beauty"). Such an infatuation could result in a sorrowful story like that of Death in Venice, or even in a romance if the young guy should fall for the older guy. But here things take a totally different and violent turn.
In many aspects this movie is very unsatisfying. This is partly due to the weird cinematographic mannerisms of the director. At various, mostly pivotal moments in the story he shuts off the sound of the dialogues, so in stead of actually hear them, we just have to watch the actors talking and guess at what has been said. At some point this works okay, but at other moments it is really detrimental to the story and our understanding of it. This especially mars the end of the movie, leaving you with an exasperated what-the-deuce-happened-here?! feeling.
All in all a disappointing movie with a very indistinct message and an unsatisfying conclusion (if any!). The pace is extremely slow (at many points we have to watch Francois for several minutes just sitting still and pondering) and it is even hard to judge the quality of acting, since the actor that plays Francois most of the time doesn't seem to do any acting, but just sits or talks with a blank, inscrutable face.
An older husband and father, who already leads a hidden double life, gets obsessively infatuated with his daughters beautiful boyfriend (hence probably the title "Beauty"). Such an infatuation could result in a sorrowful story like that of Death in Venice, or even in a romance if the young guy should fall for the older guy. But here things take a totally different and violent turn.
In many aspects this movie is very unsatisfying. This is partly due to the weird cinematographic mannerisms of the director. At various, mostly pivotal moments in the story he shuts off the sound of the dialogues, so in stead of actually hear them, we just have to watch the actors talking and guess at what has been said. At some point this works okay, but at other moments it is really detrimental to the story and our understanding of it. This especially mars the end of the movie, leaving you with an exasperated what-the-deuce-happened-here?! feeling.
All in all a disappointing movie with a very indistinct message and an unsatisfying conclusion (if any!). The pace is extremely slow (at many points we have to watch Francois for several minutes just sitting still and pondering) and it is even hard to judge the quality of acting, since the actor that plays Francois most of the time doesn't seem to do any acting, but just sits or talks with a blank, inscrutable face.