Watch In My Father's Garden For Free

Simply Perfect

Fresh and Exciting

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Blistering performances.

You have a bunch of good actors, a storyline which is OK..and then a very boring movie. In many cases it makes no sense at all. Characters are added but their contribution is so minimal you forget they are in in. Atsma and Herlaar are doing great but these were the longest 2 hours of my life.

Though I am not religious anymore and have not visited a Dutch Reformed church in a decade or so, I retained enough knowledge about my former faith to be very annoyed by this movie. It gets so many details so blatantly wrong, that it's clearly made by people who have never seen a church from the inside, and is aimed at non- believers only. As such, it fails to deliver on its premise of painting a portrait of the very devoutly Christian Dutch 'gereformeerden.' At one point a child actor sings one of the most famous psalms in the Dutch Calvinist churches, but completely, totally, screws up the melody; more than enough to not be able to suspend one's disbelief any longer. Just another example of shoddy research: the actors read Bible verses in the old 17th century translation, but never do this in the singy, nearly Muslim-like way all Reformed people do it. Additionally, the movie appears to have had a budget of about $3.50. Its OST consists of a 10 second loop of orchestral music which blatantly rips off Michael Kamen's Band of Brothers soundtrack, and its camera work is so shoddy you keep thinking they just couldn't be bothered to do any retakes. Also, the casting is horrible: several actors are either just really bad, or talk in Brabantian (southern Dutch) accents while no Reformed person in the history of Calvinism would ever have talked in such an accent (the Bible Belt is north from Brabant). Then, there are numerous anachronisms: for example, music that is supposed to sound like mid- 60s Beatlemania rock (as the scene is set in 1965) actually sounds like mid-50s Buddy Holly-rock 'n roll. Lastly, the director chose to end a movie about the most die hard Amish-like hardcore Christians you can find on the planet, by playing an evangelical 'hallelujah!' song while the credits roll. Appalling and laughable. All in all, a movie to avoid, except if you want to waste two hours of your life on a totally incorrect and sloppy portrayal of zealous Dutch Christians. If you réally want to spend two hours on getting to know the Reformed Church, they'll gladly show you for free twice every Sunday at a location near you (though I'd suggest you stay in bed instead to Netflix and chill).