I don't know if this film tried to be an absurd comedy about competing assassins or a drama about a man trying to reconnect with his daughter, but it fails at both.
Stuff just happens without logical causes or consequences. For example, Schneider learns that he's being setup. What does he do with that information? Nothing. So what's the point of him learning it?
The film is full of these kind of things which makes watching it very boring.
It also doesn't help we never learn the characters motivations for doing things. It makes the weird things they do not just weird, but incomprehensible. In a good absurd film characters may have illogical reasons, but they do have them. Without, you can't know the characters and you just go: "oh, they're doing this now, I guess."
The dialogue is just bad.
The setting is boring. The film mostly takes place in Bax' house, which is completely white, and the surrounding swamp, which people keep wading into for no reason.
One thing I liked was when Bax' daughter, Francisca, locked herself in a room and the two were talking to each other through the door. The door then became a physical barrier symbolising the emotional barrier between the characters.
It's a shame she ran off into the swamp afterwards, because I feel this film really wanted to focus on their relationship.
It would have been better if Francisca showed up unannounced to try to repair her relationship with her dad. While Bax tries to make her leave, because he knows Schneider is coming, but he can't reveal to her he's an assassin. That could have been a very tense film.
Also, the film could have upped the absurdity. If the weird happenings actually impacted the plot it could be funny. The birthday thing, for example is underutilised, just like Schneider himself, but imagine if he's in the middle of trying to kill Bax, while at the same time on the phone with his wife to decide what flavour of birthday cake he wants.
As, it is though, the film is boring and not worth watching.
Stuff just happens without logical causes or consequences. For example, Schneider learns that he's being setup. What does he do with that information? Nothing. So what's the point of him learning it?
The film is full of these kind of things which makes watching it very boring.
It also doesn't help we never learn the characters motivations for doing things. It makes the weird things they do not just weird, but incomprehensible. In a good absurd film characters may have illogical reasons, but they do have them. Without, you can't know the characters and you just go: "oh, they're doing this now, I guess."
The dialogue is just bad.
The setting is boring. The film mostly takes place in Bax' house, which is completely white, and the surrounding swamp, which people keep wading into for no reason.
One thing I liked was when Bax' daughter, Francisca, locked herself in a room and the two were talking to each other through the door. The door then became a physical barrier symbolising the emotional barrier between the characters.
It's a shame she ran off into the swamp afterwards, because I feel this film really wanted to focus on their relationship.
It would have been better if Francisca showed up unannounced to try to repair her relationship with her dad. While Bax tries to make her leave, because he knows Schneider is coming, but he can't reveal to her he's an assassin. That could have been a very tense film.
Also, the film could have upped the absurdity. If the weird happenings actually impacted the plot it could be funny. The birthday thing, for example is underutilised, just like Schneider himself, but imagine if he's in the middle of trying to kill Bax, while at the same time on the phone with his wife to decide what flavour of birthday cake he wants.
As, it is though, the film is boring and not worth watching.