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Powerful

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Steven Soderbergh's cult "Kafka" is not a biopic of writer Franz Kafka, yet it has references of his works such as "The Castle", passages of his life (where he tells to a friends to burn his manuscripts away without showing his writings to the public) and a main character who happens to be a writer named Kafka. The extremely shy Kafka (Jeremy Irons) works in a bureaucratic place where he also writes to himself a few stories and some letters to his father. In this same place he only has one friend, a guy named Edward Raban who disappeared mysteriously. Kafka starts a strange journey trying to figure out what happened to his friend entering in a dangerous game with some strange figures such as Edward's lover and Kafka's co-worker (Theresa Russell) and her revolutionary friends; a very friendly figure who knows too much (Jeroen Krabbé); Grubach a police inspector (Armin Mueller-Stahl); and some of his own work colleagues such as his new assistants (Keith Allen and Simon McBurney), his estranged boss (Alec Guinness) and the annoying Mr. Burgel (Joel Grey); and at last Dr. Murnau (Ian Holm).In a magnificent performance Jeremy Irons makes of his Kafka a man suffocated by the environment where he lives and the only way to escape of it it's to write stories that reflect his life in an awkward way and/or his life as an "investigator" that took him to darker places that could have been a source of inspiration for his works. The movie goes to tell us that he lived in a bizarre and very surrealistic place with surrealistic figures all around him and they were always trying to watch his next step, what he was doing and Kafka run away from this people, hides his writing works. This is a good thriller material!Soderbergh makes of "Kafka" a good humored film noir that has a great mystery to be solved, the rhythm of the film is intertwined with some slow paced moments where you can pause your brain to solve some of the puzzles, a frantic suspense that goes to complete a surrealistic plot. The final result is a great movie with nothing obvious and it makes good homages to Kafka's work, and homages to another classic films. It is an interesting cross between "The Third Man" and "Brazil", the visual of those two films combined along with the almost colorless Kafka's books are put together in here. Walt Lloyd's cinematography is one of the most interesting and effective work ever made in film history, a photography that goes from black and white to color in a great way, showing these two worlds that seem to distant so each other when in fact they're close enough. In this case you can sense that the colorful world presented in the castle isn't better than the oppressive grey world outside of its dominions, the colors are presented only to tell us a frightening reality that is so shocking that we really want to go back to the black and white world along with Kafka. And as a great mind said one time: "The black and white doesn't lie". Unnoticed in its time "Kafka" is a cult film that must be revered by everyone and must of all revered by Kafka's fans even though this is not a biographical movie, it's more like a film that reveals more of his persona and an invitation to visually penetrate to his own creations. Or don't you think that we don't live in a Kafkanian nightmare in a Kafkanian world? 10/10

A good movie about a good man. A game with life's pieces and work's pieces, a story about a ghost. Kafka like character, more heroic, more strange and free. But who is Franz Kafka in this new space? A friend, a searcher, a victim? The film is only a view of a small world. Kafka is created like symbol and mark of a solitude who live in everybody. Is he the real "Castle"'s author? No! The problem is that: we seen the image of a film-maker about a great writer. Not his biography, not elements of his life, not a real life. Maybe, only a story of fear and sense. "Life is dream" is an old sign of normality. But for many people the dream is only way to believe that they lives. For me, Franz Kafka is the most important writer of the XXth century. Auschwitz, the Gulag, Pol Pot's crimes or September 11 are the pieces of his writings. The importance of this film is to create a answer at reality. The each people's reality. Is a good/ bad answer? Who cares?

Director Steven Soderbergh's turn of the century tale about a small hamlet in Prague beset by the murders of a serial killer was ostensibly inspired by the writings of Franz Kafka, but the whole thing is really just an excuse to showcase the admittedly brilliant talents of several art directors and production designers. The film looks so incredible that one cannot help but be disappointed when the "plot" (such as it is) fails to take shape, or even attempt to involve the viewer. Able players Jeremy Irons, Theresa Russell and wily Joel Grey may be aware they're only part of a dog-and-pony show, but they manage to keep their dignity (with the exception of an overwrought Russell near the finish). A handsome failure, and immensely forgettable. *1/2 from ****

Early Steven Soderbergh film is full of grand ideas and thoughtful reflection combined with fear and doubt of the world at large. A nice mix when attempting to portray a writer. This film owes elements to NOSFERATU(1922) and even makes frequent references to Murnau and Orlac, DRACULA(1931), FRANKENSTEIN(1931), BRAZIL & NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR(1984). However, it's not quite in the same league as those. The film is a bit too predictable. Excellent performance by Jeremy irons in the lead.