Now, what do we have here? On the one hand, we start off hearing a gloomy monologue of the main character speaking of fate, how it can not be avoided and everything will turn to *poop* - as Belgian farmers generally may or may not be inclined to believe...? Then straight after, we are pulled into the story of the hormone mafia (to increase meat production, cows are given hormone injections, and the murder of an investigator is based on the true case of Karel van Noppen), but pay attention, because it is kind of hard to follow. Then, after some time, we go back twenty years in time and learn of a completely different story, which also goes back to the opening monologue of the film, and (among other things) a connection between the main character and a criminal / informant is explained.
These two stories could have worked together, but it just hardly feels rightly combined in this film. At times I wished they had made this into a TV-series, because many characters and issues deserved so much more elaborating. And, I speak of two stories, but there's actually much more going on (for instance a sort of love story and the police doing a sting operation), so 129 minutes is the least they could have used.
The most important scene in all this seems to be the brutal beating of main character's privates Jacky at a young age. It's sheer shock value can't be denied, and everything after seems like kid's stuff(!); in any case it puts the story of the hormone mafia (and the police chasing them) in a shady corner. If only that story had died down in the film, but unfortunately, it didn't.
And then there are these strangely humorous (I do believe they might be quite Belgian) moments, e.g. the religious vision of Jacky, the gay man (accidentally?) farting on the phone and the police woman's reaction to it, the main character asking the same (gay) man if he's gay and the gay man trying to hide his true identity; in themselves not really funny moments, but more reminiscent of a film like Fargo, where funny meets real, sort of.
Finally, the gloomy look of the film is pretty much spot on, I enjoyed it, as well as pretty much all of the acting. But all in all, this is a tough one to give a good rating. There's just too much mixing in the story lines to be truly convinced, although I did easily sit it out.
These two stories could have worked together, but it just hardly feels rightly combined in this film. At times I wished they had made this into a TV-series, because many characters and issues deserved so much more elaborating. And, I speak of two stories, but there's actually much more going on (for instance a sort of love story and the police doing a sting operation), so 129 minutes is the least they could have used.
The most important scene in all this seems to be the brutal beating of main character's privates Jacky at a young age. It's sheer shock value can't be denied, and everything after seems like kid's stuff(!); in any case it puts the story of the hormone mafia (and the police chasing them) in a shady corner. If only that story had died down in the film, but unfortunately, it didn't.
And then there are these strangely humorous (I do believe they might be quite Belgian) moments, e.g. the religious vision of Jacky, the gay man (accidentally?) farting on the phone and the police woman's reaction to it, the main character asking the same (gay) man if he's gay and the gay man trying to hide his true identity; in themselves not really funny moments, but more reminiscent of a film like Fargo, where funny meets real, sort of.
Finally, the gloomy look of the film is pretty much spot on, I enjoyed it, as well as pretty much all of the acting. But all in all, this is a tough one to give a good rating. There's just too much mixing in the story lines to be truly convinced, although I did easily sit it out.