Reviews

I don't quite understand if it's the time in history that should explain why this plot should be okay. Because when you watch it now 2023 almost 30 years after it came, I just can't wrap my head around it.

Karol is impotent, he probably got some type of erectile dysfunction. That is fine, it's a sickness that many have. Dominique is a newly married young woman, she like's to be able to have sex in her relationship. And for that reason she decides to divorce Karol. How is that a bad thing? And why should she be punished for it?

If it was reversed: Karol want kids, but Dominique can't have kids. Should he then be punished by being framed for murder because he left her to have kids with someone that can? Dominique just want some hard d*ck! How is that a bad thing!?

Yes, she moans at him in the phone when being with someone els. But he's being a creep by getting into their old saloon and after that living outside her window when she just want's to be left alone. Why does Kieslowski want to portray this as Dominique being something that Karol owns, and Karol being the only victim here? Yes, his situation s*cks, but she just want a normal life and she gets punished beyond sense for it.

In the end I was just hoping that Karol would get put out, because I just couldn't see the logic in this being a 1,5 hour long bashing of a innocent woman. But the movie failed me.

But everything els, the photo, the dialogue, the production design - everything are beautiful and I love it (as always with Kieslowski). But this plot is terrible, I hate it so much.

Do you have problem with reading and writing? Then you should succeed in something creative instead. Because you will always need to be great at something. At least that's what this movie is trying to tell us. And that's missing a very important message to everyone: It's okay, it's always okay. You don't have to be a succesful painter, writer, actor, mathematician, engineer, lawyer, athlete or anything else that's ranked on the "high end" of proficiencies. You are as much needed in the society working construction, taking care of elderly, cleaning toilets or what ever it might be. You'll probably benefit the society even more with those occupations than many journalists, actors and painters do.

With that being said, what about Taare Zameen Par?

It's not that well executed. The runtime is pasted 2 hours 40 minutes, and these minutes are not used very well. This could have easily been told in 1,5-2 hours, which would have helped the storytelling in the movie a lot. Because everything is incredibly slow. Why do we have to see Ishaans struggle at home for the first hour, before he even gets sent to other school? We get it. We got it after like 10 minutes. His parents is bad, they don't give him the tools and support he needs to be able to succeed. I get that this is the case for many, but it's also very basic and one dimentional. It would be more realistic with more dynamic parents, that don't just conclude: "You're dumb, you're retarded." But for example ask him: "What is it that you feel's challenging?" It's pretty basic parenting. But sure, for some, this was and is the reality.

It's not before 80 minutes into the movie that Aamir Khan (who else..) shows up and represent the only reasonable character in this movie. If he wasn't on a pedestal in Bollywood already, he wants to cement his position up there even more.

Then during all this, there's these constant recurring montage with music over them. It's like very flat music videos. Like one in a movie can be fine, but how many are there in this one? 5-6? More? I even had to clock the last one, it went on for 6,5 minutes. It's like they don't even care that anyone takes there time of the day to watch this. It's like time doesn't even mean anything to them. This movie just robs you of it. Montages always slows the tempo down, and the tempo was slow already. And they don't use the montage to create any deeper feelings in the audience, they just put in random stuff there. Like someone took the latest 100 pictures in their camera roll, made a montage of it and put music to it. There's no point in them.

And with that also being said, this is still a decent movie. The acting is fine, it's good to highlight dyslexia and parts of the story works. If they re-edit this down to 1,5 hours I might even recommend it for others to watch. But now everyone should probably just stay away.

Martin Schibbye himself have condemned this movie for being inaccurate when it comes to the military uniforms and weapons being too modern and clean and the prison being too dirty and hostile. But that doesn't bother me at all.

Did the military in reality have older weapons and the fellow prisoners was even more polite than how they are portrayed in the movie? Good for them! Because I got a very friendly feeling from the prison, it didn't even feel that intimidating that I have imagine that Kaliti would be. I actually didn't get the feeling that Martin and Johan was intimidated at all.

It more felt like a movie about a legal battle, and that being the swedes main concern. Johan och Martin seems more frustrated about not being able to speak their mind, then the fact that they was living in a prison for over a year. They just say it with ease: "We wouldn't survive here 11 years". But there's really no desperation in that. You don't get the feeling of how terrible it must be(?) to sit in that kind of prison for that long time. I got the feeling that they was mainly annoyed over not getting set free, then desperate to get out of there. It seemed like Martin even considered to appeal against the penalty, just because he wanted to make his freedom of speech-point. Is that really what was on top of his mind? Then the prison life didn't seem to have been as bad as I thought it was.

Sure, maybe that was a way to keep themselves sane. Occupying their minds with what they were there for in the first place. But it made me feel like I was watching two kids that ran away from their mother to their abusive father, because 'We have the right to be with dad if we want'. And now the parents was battling over custody. The father, Ethiopia, being the destructive parent and really not wanting them there, but still feeling obligated to keep them in one way. And the mother, Sweden, that wants them home and safe, even if she have hard to understand why they would have to go to the abusive father in the first place.

When you read Martins critique about the movie, it's not about how it focuses on a legal battle or the lack of feeling for how it is to sit in a prison for 438 days. His problem with the movie is that the journalists being imprisoned in Ethiopia are not only being silenced in real life, but also in the movie. I feel the journalism and freedom of speech-thread is the main role of the movie. The legal battle over their right to express themselves. When I was expecting a movie about 438 days in a prison.