Character (1997)

Very Cool!!!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

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

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Jacob Katadreuffe lives mute with his mother, has no contact with his father who only works against him and wants to become a lawyer, at all costs.This was the Netherlands' entry into the Academy Awards, and they just so happened to win. I could go back and check who the opposition was, but I feel pretty confident that this was well-deserved. The movie looks great, the plot is thrilling and the characters engaging.Admittedly, I have a very limited knowledge of Dutch film (have I even seen five?) but I know a good film when I see one. And this has the intrigue of a good American gangster film without the history and cliché trapping it, weighing it down.

This is the second Jan Decleir film I have watched today. It was the Best Foreign Film winner at the 1998 Oscars.The age old story of the hatred between father (Declrir) and son (Fedja van Huêt), a man easy to hate as he was totally without compassion.Katadreuffe, the product of a one-nighter between his father and mother, grows up and makes good, but it is only to spite his father.If watching this film reminds you of a classic novel, it is it's Dickensonion mood, where we are focused on the poverty of the city, and the cruelty by government officials.Beautiful cinematography by Rogier Stoffers and Mike van Diem's direction and screenplay are almost perfect.

"Karakter" is an awesome movie with an ingenious plot. During the film you end up repeatedly wondering why certain characters behave the way they do, and with the help of marvelous actors (especially Jan Decleir/Dreverhaven), the resolutions always surprise you and leave you pondering. The magnificent cinematography deserves a praise, too, and despite the prolonged chess-game quality of the battle between Jacob Katadreuffe and his father, everything that happens regarding this has a curious thriller aspect to it.Victor Löw's appearance as De Gankelaar is very impressive (perhaps in some ways comparable to Brando's Don Corleone in the Godfather, although these characters are not alike). Also the ethereal beauty (in my opinion) of Tamar van den Dop as Lorna te George didn't hurt my enjoyment of this film at all.Altogether, don't miss "Karakter" if you ever have a chance to watch it!

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.