After being a huge fan of Umbre I had much higher expectations from this. The actors are good, we saw their abilities before - but this movie does what I hoped it wouldn't. It makes everything dull, takes the spark out of every single actor and puts you to sleep.
What this movie does so wrong in my opinion is not hooking you in. Considering this is attempting to be a slow burn thriller, mysterious, atmospheric, etc, you need a hook - something to spark the interest at first and then keep it through the buildup of the subsequent slow-burn. This starts slow with nothing to keep you interested. It's just boring, muddling through, hoping to keep you there long enough to get to the point.
The dialogue is extremely weak and feels unrealistic - the scene when the main character walks into the girl's apartment and she tells him how "yet" is such a unpleasant word felt like it was written by a 16 year-old. It's the same with many other lines that feel pulled of out of a 2012 tumblr post.
Also, the typical terrible writing of women in romanian cinema is strong here. They're either hysterical mothers/wives, manic pixie dream girls, or "fallen" women. There is no dimension, no worthy personality, they are just there to support the male protagonist - which is frankly, very boring.
What this movie does so wrong in my opinion is not hooking you in. Considering this is attempting to be a slow burn thriller, mysterious, atmospheric, etc, you need a hook - something to spark the interest at first and then keep it through the buildup of the subsequent slow-burn. This starts slow with nothing to keep you interested. It's just boring, muddling through, hoping to keep you there long enough to get to the point.
The dialogue is extremely weak and feels unrealistic - the scene when the main character walks into the girl's apartment and she tells him how "yet" is such a unpleasant word felt like it was written by a 16 year-old. It's the same with many other lines that feel pulled of out of a 2012 tumblr post.
Also, the typical terrible writing of women in romanian cinema is strong here. They're either hysterical mothers/wives, manic pixie dream girls, or "fallen" women. There is no dimension, no worthy personality, they are just there to support the male protagonist - which is frankly, very boring.