hyped garbage

Fantastic!

Admirable film.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A group of survivors from a French based concentration camp in WWII gather for a weekend at a country home in Quebec, more than 30 years after the war. Most critics either praised this to the skies, calling it as powerful as Bergman. or they damned it for being slow, too familiar, sappy and not special. I lean more towards the positive. First of all this is a wonderful bunch of older actors (Max Von Sydow, Susan Sarandon, Gabriel Byrne, Christopher Plummer) and, as one would expect, they each bring a lot to their roles. It is also beautifully photographed.If not quite Bergman, I do buy it as 'Bergman-lite'; the same sense of the confusing complexities of the human heart, and the way earlier damage always comes back to haunt us. Yes it has a few over-the-top moments, and it ultimately didn't pack quite the punch I expected, but I was never bored, despite the deliberate pace, and found each of these lost souls quite compelling.

This film was one of the absolute best acted, best directed and scripted of any I have yet watched.The film is not a tear jerker, except for the both dumb of heart and mind. It is a powerful story, that has roots in the very fabric of human history and the struggle for meaning in life.The existential struggles and scarred souls of three Nazi concentration camp survivors, meet after 35 years. Lessons are learned by all involved. The perhaps greatest lesson, is the need for the young to understand the life and circumstances their parents faced. And, ironically the inability of time to seem anything except indifferent to human suffering and existence itself. The past and its sufferings need give way to time's indiffernce. Live and love in the present. That is the crux of this fine drama.I do-not suggest this film for insensitive slobbery and obviously some here saw nothing in it. It is as if a great film was cast before them and all they saw was a boring pace and words and emotions they could never feel or associate themselves with.I have given this film a NINE. That for me is almost an impossible thing to do, if you review my reviews.Congratulations on a moving, intellectual and poignant cinema.

With the all of the big names in this film I was expecting a real experience. I could not have been more wrong. I wanted to take the DVD out after 10 minutes but my 18 year old son said we should give it a chance. We watched through to the end because none of us could summon enough energy to stand up and walk to the TV. Not only was the pace too slow for words but the acting (except for Max von Sydow) was excruciatingly bad. The flashbacks did not do enough to show the supposed life long ties between the characters. It was like watching six characters with no relationship to each other wandering around the set gnashing their teeth and wringing their hands. The symbolism was so in-your- face that it might as well have had flashing captions saying "pay attention to this-it is symbolic!" A most disappointing movie. At least the scenery was nice to watch.

...because it was too disjointed and it seemed it was building up some steam and then suddenly it stopped again or more exactly dragged to a stop. Not a lot happened and what did happen had limited explanations explanations. What were American and Irish children doing in Paris in the Second World War? Would the Nazi's have really gone out of their way to get two orphans? What's with Max Van Sydow and the gun in the barn? Why is the grandson's mother mentioned once and never again? Gabriel Brynes' accent kept appearing and then disappearing. The actor who played him as a boy had no Irish accent at all. Having said that I hasten to add the actors gave life and some consistently to an otherwise jerky story line. The scenery was amazing as well. They are the reason I watched it to the end and gave the movie a 10.