Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Mr Black I really enjoyed this film. I thought the direction and cinematography was superb. The director obviously put a lot of thought into each shot and the cinematographer is gifted. It is an unusual story line and well done. Really liked Elizabeth Reaser. Thought she was not only beautiful but did a great job posing as this poor German girl. Well done. In fact the entire cast was quite spectacular. Costuming was great. This is my type of film. It tells a story using character and script. Nobody getting blown up, or being shot. Just human emotion. This was director Ali Selim's first feature film and what a great start to a feature career. From what i've read he was already accomplished in working in commercials so he knew what film was all about. The transition to a feature film is superb.

Susan Because so much of the film was lovely beyond belief, I wanted to rate it a "ten", but an unintelligible prologue and the personal shock of seeing Paul Sands cast as an aged Norwegian kept me from doing that.Aside from Sands, I must admit,the casting was impeccable. I also admired the period interiors (looked as if they had come straight from some catalogs of the time).Elizabeth Reaser did an excellent job, however, her German was not up to snuff, alas (I can't comment on her other language), and that did keep me from believing in her characterization completely.Tim Guinee did just as well, his stolidness melding just in time . And Lois Smith, whom I hadn't seen on film in years, was just as good as you could get; she was the fabric that cemented the film.All in all, I recommend the film highly for its sweetness and honesty; the prologue needs to be re-cut, I think. It was undecipherable to me.

Hitchcoc Welcome to the land of Garrison Keillor. This is a very subtle and beautiful film about a topic that my mother would have been extremely aware of. Being of German descent (a family that began farming in the late 1800's), she and her brothers put up with a lot during the war. They had to make the decision at that point to not speak German, even among themselves. While they weren't put to the test as much (since their community was mostly German), it was always an issue. I think what makes this film is that there is little like it in the film world. The people at those Lutheran, soft-spoken, men-of-few- words farmers who go about their business, trying to stay ahead of the bank. The specter of socialism scares the banker because he can divide and conquer and take the land away from them without much effort. There's a lot of the same fear going on these days and people are awfully forgetful about what brought us here and awfully trusting of the potentially oppressive financiers. This film is so quiet and yet has such an edge to it. It's about true love and trust and how we pass our heritage on to others. I will add a totally irrelevant note. I had the pleasure of actually working in theatre with two of the minor characters during my college days in the 70's. Also, some fine work by Guthrie Theatre alums. See this film. You won't be disappointed.

jmschau And I think that's what many viewers pass their ultimate judgment on - what they think the movie is about.The actual movie, though, falls far short. Let me count the ways.It's pace, if there is one, is glacial.Olaf, for most of the movie is beyond shy and retiring, he's border line retarded.The minister hates Inge with a passion, then does a 180, decides he loves the girl, based on....what? Seeing her work hard in the corn field? The neighbors raise $7,000 and give it to Olaf so Olaf can keep his farm? No, to keep his neighbor's farm, which he bought without any money. When his 'bid' was the highest, all the banker lets the other bidders, the ones with real money, take off, despite knowing that Olaf does have anywhere near enough money.On the other hand, viewers were fortunate enough to see what was probably the prettiest immigrant girl who came across the ocean. Lucky Olaf.The general concept could have resulted in a really sweet movie - the actual story line was thread bear.