UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Dirk Tilger What I liked about the movie was the unusual setting and the style of it. I have to admit, though I like some good black humor, I didn't find the bizarreness of this movie particularly amusing. However the thought crossed my mind that when watching this movie in a theater with others it might be more funny.The characters were somewhat flat, though they felt real. I liked more scenes towards the end of the movie, particularly the visit to the German family and the end.I vote it one point over average for its unusualness and the style the movie was done. I liked the artistic aura of it.

bob the moo A commuter and a farmhand get in one another's way often, causing tensions and frustrations between them. When the farmhand causes the commuter to miss his train, lose his job and arrive home early to find his wife having an affair, the commuter and the farmhand get into a fight around the farm equipment and end up badly injured – both ending up paralysed from the waist down. Seemingly stuck with one another, they set out on a trip to Finland to seek out the manufacturer of the equipment that put them in this state.This sat on my harddrive for several months before I got around to watching it and, if you read the plot summary and know that it is a black & white and in French, you will perhaps understand why. Unsure of what to expect I settled down to it – thinking it unfair that I neglect it in favour of "easier" American blockbusters etc. What I found was an unspectacular but clever look at how disabled people are treated and viewed. The road trip aspect is not much more than a frame to allow this to happen and indeed even the conclusion is making the point in an amusing way. In regards narrative then it doesn't really satisfy because of this being the weaker aspect but I found the look at disability to be enough to cover this.The writer and director do well to avoid sentimentality or preaching and they are very even handed across the telling. We see people being overly kind, people ignoring them, people picking them and so on. Fairly we also seeing them taking advantage of goodwill and being just as big a pair of jerks as able-bodied people can be. It sounds simple to say it but the film does do a good job with this theme and, although not hilarious, it did produce some dark laughs along the way. Writer and director Delépine and de Kervern do a good job in the two lead roles and also work very well with a limited budget.Overall then not a perfect film but a cleverer one that I initially gave it credit for. The narrative is not a lot more than a frame to allow the dark comic look at the treatment of the two characters but in this regard it works well enough while the examples of treatment are fair and well delivered.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre 'Aaltra', made on a budget of about ninepence (and showing every penny of it) is a harsh and unsentimental comedy about a couple of paraplegics who go on a road trip from Belgium to Finland by means of hitch-hiking in their wheelchairs. The fact that the two travelling companions are bitter enemies only adds to the bizarre hilarity.Both travellers are intentionally depicted as unlikeable. The filmmakers rather daringly go against audience sentiment, deliberately undermining any sympathy that the physical handicap of the main characters would give them. One of the two handicapped men is shown asking passers-by to help him across the road ... and then he tries to snatch their wallets while they assist him! Elsewhere, there is a great deal of pratfall comedy at the expense of the two paraplegics.The entire film is shot in stark, washed-out monochrome. I suspect that this was a necessity due to the very low production budget, but the filmmakers have cleverly turned this to the advantage of the narrative. The whole film looks like some stark minimalist seriocomedy by Samuel Beckett. Imagine Vladimir and Estragon in wheelchairs, on their way to see Godot. Or two Hamms without a Clov.There are some bizarre continuity lapses: these seem to be down to the low budget. And there is also a very gratuitous insertion of a naked woman; I suspect that the distributor insisted upon this, in order for the film to get a larger audience. 'Aaltra' is not to all tastes, but I laughed heartily and the filmmakers show real ability. I'll rate this movie 7 out of 10.

danielsaraga Aaltra is definitely worth a try. The photography (grainy black-and-white) is very well composed, and the pictures are often beautiful, or at least kind of puzzling --even though they are merely showing a train, a field, or a tractor....The film is clearly pretty odd, and reminded me of the absurd atmosphere present in Kaurismakis' movie. Better, the film has a refreshing cynical black humor and has the courage of treating wheel-chair people without being patronizing at all (i.e., without any more respect than everybody else)... The humour reminded me a little bit of Man Bites Dog (C'est arrive pres de chez vous), although in a much milder tone which should be more acceptable for the mainstream.Despite these qualities, it seems that a clear narrative (as well as geographical) direction what was lacking. I did not really have strong feelings for the story or its characters, which left me definitely seduced, but not enthralled.