Horst_In_Translation Review of The Girl and Death

The Girl and Death (2012)

Girl and death cannot breath life into this

[4/10 · 19 July 2015]

"Het Meisje en de Dood" is a Dutch movie from 3 years ago written and directed by Jos Stelling. It crosses the 2-hour mark, but unfortunately it cannot deliver enough material to make these 125 minutes really worth a watch. This is especially a shame as I really liked Sylvia Hoeks in "The Best Offer" and Didi Hallervorden is also an actor that I quite approve of. Russian actor Leonid Bichevin plays the male lead, but I don't know him and I also did not find him very memorable in here. Same goes for Hoeks. Hallervorden, on the other hand,, did a fine job with the mediocre material he was given here. Maybe it helps that he only has a handful scenes and is a supporting player who does not have to carry the movie. Still, the scene near the end where he has that heavy makeup on is really the lowpoint of this film, but that's also not his fault really. Another negative aspect here is that I personally did no really get emotionally involved with the characters or the story. The male central character I actually found rather unlikeable. All in all, this is not a great film by any means unfortunately. I recommend the Hoeks movie I saw before where she also plays a somewhat mysterious character, but that film has a brilliant lead performance by Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush and also a much better script. "Het Meisje en de Dood" could have needed improvement in both areas. Not recommended.