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COLD WINDS

Today's film was the Dutch wartime film

Oorlogswinter / Winter in Wartime (2008) just recently released in the States.

This is an old fashioned movie with a post modern twist.

That doesn't mean they have left any of the tropes out. There is still the small town, the nazi hardness and the determined resistance.

What is different is that the soldiers are more human, the clarity of "sides" resistors and collaborators more ambiguously laid out and the simplicity of the production.

There are no big guns in this. Mostly people at a small town level. Very little discernible special effects. I don't think that one thing blows up.

It is a coming of age story but a younger age. At fourteen, Michiel has more to deal with than most even in a war movie. The sureties of life slip away. His dad is the mayor. A close friend asks him to help him deliver a secret message. He finds a surviving British pilot in the woods. His uncle shows up out of nowhere and seems to be on a mysterious mission.

There is a lot of excitement here. Sometimes breathtaking twists and turns. It is not just good versus bad guys.

He is often in over his head. Figuratively and really.

Great editing. An old fashioned score with a full orchestra! Sometimes thrilling.

I liked this a lot. It would be worth another look anytime. Perhaps a 5 but I think, for now, a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films