Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(at the Toronto International Film Festival 2007)
Director: Tamar van den Dop
Starring: Halina Reijn, Joren Seldeslachts, Jan Decleir, Katelijne Verbeke
In-a-nutshell: The true star of this film, cinematographer Gregor Meerman, slams us into his grim fairy-tale environment with Bergman-type vistas and snow-glare. While the exteriors quite literally blast blinding light, the mansion where most of this movie takes place finds substance in its shadows. And Whistler's Mother graces halls daubed in a pervading colorlessness. Haunted by sharp strings of violins and intermittent smatterings of glass shattering, Tom Holkenborg's score aids van den Dop's delivery of unsettled madness from the outset.
The house introduces us to Ruben, an enraged adolescent boy blinded by the frosting over of his corneas who is a master at menacing the "help" his mother brings in to assist with his education... until he's introduced to Marie, a scarred albino with a passion for literature and an intolerance for insolence. Marie's strength of character bemuses the brat, she awakens his senses of smell and touch, and misleads him into mistaking her for beautiful. And as she reads him tales that include "The Ice Princess," the scene is set for tragedy.
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