Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

incitatus-org Through an awkward accident, Camiel (Marcel Hensema) meets Simon (Cees Geel). Camiel is an intelligent, shy, insecure, gay student studying to become a dentist. Simon is close to his opposite: a true Amsterdam mythical hero - down-to-earth, liberal, dry humoured seducer ("Couldn't you just instantly turn into a naked chick?") who owns two cafés and lives in the Dutch paradox - he's in the semi-legal business of running a hash home delivery service. Both are true products of Dutch society, as it is dreamed to be, with their multilingual, easy, matter-of-fact approach to life. But the film is mostly about Simon. Well, about Camiel looking Simon, fascinated.So what is it about Simon that so fascinates Camiel? To a certain extent, Camiel is an outsider, he is just someone who walks the streets. He is not extraordinary in any sense. Neither his love life, nor his profession can help him up, nor does he play an instrument or have any hidden talent. When he meets Simon, it seems as if Simon has his whole life organised around himself, to be able to live his life fully. He is surrounded by his oddball friends and has a loving family (in Thailand!). And that with a forgiving smile which allows him to boyishly do as he pleases.The second half of the movie is darker than the first, when the weight on the looming tragedy starts to be felt (Simon's approaching death). The second half of the film is more emotional, building on the characters and relationships of the first half. Notice the remarkable difference in the treatment of the subject with Les Invasions Barbares, of death, friendship, love, sex and society. Perhaps the last is the most remarkable, because somewhere Simon is the society. There is no clash with an outer world which is different to him - because the difference between the individuals is what makes up the society in which he lives. Similarly there is no generational gap either, Simon's children will make something out of their lives as he did with his, nothing fundamental has changed. It is Western society at its (brief?) peak. If there is any weakness in the film, then it would have to be Simon's interest in Camiel, the reasons of which could have been more explicit (perhaps his stability, or his intelligence?). None the less, the audience takes on the role of Camiel, and is taken along into Simon's world. A world which is a rare glimpse into the liberal post-modern society which is (was?) The Netherlands. Camiel will not be the only one leaving impressed.

ekeby I've read the reviews here, most of them from people living in the Netherlands. This movie seems to polarize these folk in ways that must be unique to the Dutch. I'd like to comment on it from a different cultural perspective.Reviewers here make the point repeatedly that this is a quintessentially Dutch movie, and more or less insist that you have to be Dutch to comprehend it in toto. That may be true. I know a little German, enough to have heard the cadences and staccato rhythms in the dialog. And I could tell that the English translation, although working hard, was probably not able to do justice to the actual words. This is an instance where a dubbed version might be an improvement for non-Dutch speakers.As an American, and a gay man, I found this movie totally accessible. The subject of euthanasia was not especially controversial to me, having known many gay men who chose that route in the 80s. Nor did the interaction between the two friends seem that unusual. I've had close friends who were straight and we could talk to each other in the same blunt, joking way Simon and Camiel do. I think this story could have been set in many other urban communities around the world, not just Amsterdam.So I guess I'm saying I don't think this story is uniquely Dutch by any means. That it has an extra dimension for the Dutch because of the language, however, seems likely. I liked the structure of the film, I liked the close and choppy editing, and I liked the progression of the story. In many ways the film's style is as unsentimental as the story, and that seemed appropriate.

Jonathan Fain I like dutch films. I also like to watch half-naked Dutch women. However, the topic of the movie annoys me, since it is another euthanasia movie, and I am starting to lose tolerance for the topic as it was used too often this year. The year 2004, will be remembered as the "Euthanasia Movies Year". It started with the Canadian/French film: "The Barabrian Invasion", about a mischievous father who's dieing from cancer ("Simon" resembles this film the most). It continued in Hollywood with Clint Eastwood's "Oscar Winning Machine" called "Million Dollar Baby", about a female boxer who is mortally injured and wishes Clint to put her to "sleep". The Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar presented "The Sea Inside", about a man who sits in his bed for 26 years and wishes to die. I believe there are more films I haven't encounter yet. WOW! Overload... This topic is over-exposed, I would like to remind that there are other sentimental topics to make films about. Thank you, all you wonderful talented directors for making some very touching films, but the topic of Euthinasia has been covered enough.The movie deals also with the life of a gay couple and is presented maturely and modernly. I got the feeling that Dutch society is a very free society, maybe too free.7/10

j-bouwmeester This movie is about a wide variety of emotions, topics and people. The dialogs are brilliant. Simon has a hilarious sense of humor, but his character, like the others in the movie, is still very well portrayed. All typical dutch subjects like gay-marriage, soft-drugs, euthanasia, etc., are handled in a way that it is still convincing. The last part, where euthanasia becomes the main topic, is where the movie rises above a good comedy and becomes a great comedy/drama instead. The acting in the last part is so brilliant that it almost feels like it is shot for real.Certainly a movie to recommend, and I think that even when it is translated (with a possible loss of dialog)it is still a movie worth seeing! But see a subtitled version and not a synchronized voice-over version, for the latter will be terrible