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Absolutely the worst movie.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Operatic. Shakespearean. Greek Tragedy. Complex. Moving. Unflinching in its depiction of human relationships. (I hesitate to use that phrase as 'human relationships' make me want to run.) But as I just wrote, it is classic dynamics of a distant father and a son. A boy becoming his own man. The harsh expectation of Northern European culture.Beautifully shot. I tend to think of this as the Dutch 'Godfather' in its look.Not 'realistic', but as in all great drama it is -true-.It can also be tough to watch... bad decisions. Occasional mis-guided 'heroism' which can lead to self-destructiveness.I hate this review... all talk about 'themes' and 'meaning'. More than anything? It is beautiful and tragic.

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.

I liked this in spite of itself, and you probably will as well.The story is completely unrewarding, a bleak tale of relationships unmended, unformed.But that gives the creative team an excuse to make a Dutch film after the manner of Dutch painting. The theme of the story is light in darkness and the presentation complies.The handling of light in this project is remarkable. It is not arty or self-conscious. It is in fact hard to notice because it merges so thoroughly with the way the location is photographed. That location is so enchanting you should see this in spite of the unrewarding darkness, the unuseful hopelessness.It is set nearly a hundred years ago in Rotterdam and is able to use a whole strip of waterfront buildings from that era. It is hard to see how they have done what they have because so much of is real location. But the sense of gloom in the story comes from the intrusion of a mean God into the space of lives. And that's how these buildings are photographed.See it for the architecture. Except for a final scene where a man falls down a shaft (which is too silly), this is as good as it gets without a good story.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Many people describe the movie as distant and cold. But that's exactly what the makers were aiming for to stay congruent with the 2 novels of Bordewijk where Karakter / Character is based upon. Bordewijk's style is often described as Nieuwe Zakelijkheid (best translation: New Objectivity, think Sinclair Lewis), a counter movement to the upcoming Expressionism in the 20s of the last century. Instead of the idealism of Expressionists more emphasis was put on reality, objectivity and facts in a sober and distant form with little room for frivolity, superficial beauty, sentimentality or explaining behavior. Not only does the style of the novels reflect this, the world the characters inhabit has the same characteristics. Viewed from this standpoint they made an amazing adaptation from a novel, correct in both style and content. But the movie defines more than an art movement, because the characters portrayed tell a lot about the Dutch in general, and this in a way also defines Dutch national identity.The story itself is about perseverance. Jacob is the son of a relation without love. His parents never marry, the mother leaves soon after she finds out she is pregnant. His mother is stubborn, his father a man without compassion working as a bailiff. Both parents push their son in their own way, his mother almost drives him out of her home, his father lends him money thus starting a battle over the upper hand in their relationship. The father brings adversity to his son in the hope to make him stronger. In line with the style of the novel none of the characters ever experience love. In fact the whole movie contains not one passionate scene. The only character showing emotion (De Gankelaar, an excellent role played by Victor Löw) leaves the country. It has a Nietzschian philosophical angle with the debate of lightness and weight: Jacob's burdens give his life a meaning, but are the sacrifices worth it? Location scouts did a wonderful job here, because Karakter recreates pre-war Rotterdam, a city almost totally flattened by the Nazis (There is a harrowing photo of the city after the bombardments with only the main church still standing). The production and art departments made the sets with their darkish colors fitting the form and content of the movie. The camera is used in a way to create some fluidity in the scenes: It almost never is static as with so many character dramas.Fedja van Huêt as Jacob and Jan Decleir as Dreverhaven seem to understand what's going on here and act accordingly. Tamar van den Dop as Lorna is probably the greatest weakness in the movie, with a terrible diction and limited body movement she's miscast here.Mike van Diem makes only one movie, wins an Oscar, and disappears almost from the earth. Although rumor has it he does some script doctoring in Hollywood, with his current production rate he will surpass even Malick. As for now, this is by far the best Dutch movie ever made.