Bokeh (2017)

Just perfect...

Fresh and Exciting

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

For the person who thinks that the essential plot of a movie is a question that must be answered, that plot is nothing more than a series of organized puzzles to be solved, then this movie will be disappointing. But for the person who believes that a movie is an experience, a vision, that can move you in subtle ways without banging you over the head with major action sequences every 5 minutes, then this movie is perfect. This movie was how I imagine Ernest Hemingway would write science fiction. The audience is shown, not told. The story is told truly and realistically, and everything that happens is plausible, yet it has a mystical quality that makes it almost dreamlike. From spending time in Iceland myself, I can tell you that the movie captured the country's almost fantastical essence. Iceland is something between a dream and a vision of the afterlife, and so is this movie. The country itself inevitably evokes much of what is brought up in this movie, the nature of nature, how to try to put into perspective something that leaves you speechless like the fjords or the Northern Lights, the meaning of human life and the ultimate insignificance of it next to nature. If those are themes that interest you, you'll be compelled by the movie.I have one criticism, which is the sometimes stilted dialogue, awkwardly delivered at points by the Matt O'Leary character. But he and Maika Monroe are for the most part believable and compelling.To reiterate the first paragraph: don't expect to be told what to think. Bokeh requires an open mind. It's not for the mentally slothful. It's not a movie to watch with a big group of people. It's a movie to watch alone or with one other, around midnight on a winter's night. If you have any curiosity about Iceland, this movie distills part of its essence.

It;s not worth it.... The movie doesn't present any genial idea.

I'm quite happy for a post apocalypse movie to avoid the how and why questions of what has happened, and to look in greater depth of how those who have survived respond. Nothing wrong with a 'slice of life' story. However one needs to care about the characters to be engaged in the film, and unfortunately this film failed in that respect. Both main characters seemed shallow, or rather it felt that they were not fully fleshed out - as if they were some incidental characters that had suddenly been thrust into the limelight, and the author/writer had not given them a proper back story. I wanted to like the film - the backdrops were visually appealing, and the basic premise was interesting. But come the final couple of scenes, I found I didn't care about what happened to them. In fact the final scene itself, when the credits roll, I didn't even feel disappointed, the film hadn't engaged me enough for that. On a final note, I watched this on Netflix, so unsure if it was the film itself or the version I watched, but I found it quite hard to hear - felt they were mumbling half the time.

Iceland is great to watch in this movie, but the movie itself has not a good story.