This is a deeply weird Hungarian film that is streaming on Netflix right now. It got nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.Endre (Géza Morcsányi) is a manager for a slaughterhouse in Budapest. He is attracted to Maria (Alexandra Borbély), the new quality control inspector, but finds her cold, detail-obsessed manner off-putting. Apparently, there is no Hungarian word for autistic. Maria finds it incredibly difficult to connect with other people and both of them have basically resigned themselves to lives of unfulfilling loneliness. Then a theft at the slaughterhouse prompts a police investigation, complete with psych evals for all employees. Endre and Maria learn that unbeknownst to one another they have been having the same dreams of being deer in the forest. This prompts them to try and forge a connection in real life, much more difficult than in dreams.
The forest shots are just beautiful cinematography. The concept is a little weak and there's not a lot of real character building or understanding that would push this film into being great. It's watchable, but the whole time I kept wondering why Maria was having to do all the work. Endre is not shown to be any real prize and there's no Tragic Backstory for him to explain. He comes off as a lonely, older man who is clearly damaged inside and out that a young, pretty, blonde woman is inexplicably attracted to and that narrative has never made sense to me. She is shown pushing way past her comfort zone while he makes almost no effort. And the ending is hilarious in a fucked up way which also seemed tonally inconsistent.
I don't know that I've ever seen a Hungarian film before. If for no other reason, I'm glad I watched it but it's not one that I'd recommend to all my friends and family as Must See.
No comments:
Post a Comment