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Why so much hype?

Good concept, poorly executed.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Very irritating: the diction of the actors, especially their accents, which is typical of people working for national radio and TV in the Netherlands. "Bekakt Goois". In Hoogeveen.

Three story lines, maybe effective in the book but not in this movie. The most interesting part, only 30 minutes, is the struggle between the protagonist trying to sell his shop and the investor who doesn't want to pay what the shop owner is asking. The rest seems only padding to fill it up to feature length. To bad, because the eye candy is satisfying, i.e. the image of old Amsterdam.

Dutch cinema is always a bit of a hit or a miss. There are some great directors and actors (although most actors focus on theater, as with Gijs Scholten van Aschat who is mainly a theater actor), but the movies have little budget and tend to be bland comedy-dramas. Having said this, budget is being a bit more generous in recent years. Most historical movies from the Netherlands in recent years have a tendency to be action flicks, as with the movies Michiel de Ruyter, Kenau and het Bombardement. Although the visuals due to the higher budgets are stunning (especially in Michiel de Ruyter) they lack a lot in historical accuracy and feeling. Michiel de Ruyter has little historical context and especially the behavior of the characters does not feel like the seventeenth century (children disturbing their father and jumping on his bed for example).Publieke werken succeeds in grasping the stunning visuals used in those other movies but tell a much more layered and original story. Centered around two cousins (fictional characters to be precise) this movie gives them a lot more temporal feel. The dialogue and behavior of most characters is distant, which is in my humble knowledge mostly accurate and a lot of the feelings the characters are experiencing are oppressed and show just a little. This gives a certain historical distance and I find that praise-worthy. On the downside this makes the plot sometimes a bit hard to follow.The effect I loved the most is the lighting in this movie. It felt very natural and accurate, scenes at night where mostly lit by oil lamps or candles and the scenes inside are mostly darker even when it is day. Although probably some effect was used to get this it felt as a very natural portrayal of a society where electricity was not readily available, although around the corner, as the movie is set in 1888.The biggest downside to this movie, coherent to a lot of Dutch movies, was in the audio mixing. For some reason Dutch movies tend to mix the spoken lines softly and the music really loud. Maybe this is due to the reason I watched this movie on television, but still it is a trend. As a native speaker of Dutch this makes some lines for me hard to understand. If you are watching with subtitles this would probably be of no concern to you.I give this movie 8 out of 10. A historical movie which let you experience the historical distance of his subjects, good acting, magnificent visuals, original plot and deep characters.

Despite an expensive production, the narrative is unconvincing. "Value of location" is one of the main topics of the film. Nonetheless, the film does not give the viewer a sense of place. The choice and ordering of scenes undermine any tension to be build up. The different story lines do not support, but destroy each other. Important changes in the plot are not properly introduced or visually translated. As a result the gradual emotional breakdown of the violin maker, one of the main characters, is not convincing. The end scene of the doctor, the other main character, is so ridiculous and pathetic that it melts down the entire Hoogeveen storyline. Vital themes such as social injustice, or the arrival of modernity are treated as interchangeable backdrop. A relevant storyline is lacking. By result the causality of the narrative breaks down and all events become arbitrary. Pretty frustrating, as Rosenboom's success novel must have had all layers in place. A film can never be as rich as a novel, but a film must present those strings that contain the story. That is unfortunately not the case here.