Many viewers around me enjoyed this film more than I did. The last half hour took an interesting turn and offered some compensation

Rating: 6/10 (24 February 2013)

Main character Jon is used to round up women from the disco. He always succeeds in getting the one who received the highest marks from his friends. He has sex with his prey, seemingly enjoyed by both, but the real satisfaction comes afterwards when watching porn on his laptop. History repeats itself every week, each time with a new woman appointed by his friends as an attractive target. He knows this is not the proper thing to do, and he makes a habit of dutifully confessing in church how many times he had "intercourse out of wedlock". Each time his sins are forgiven after a standard penance of 10 Holy Mary's and 10 Our Father's.
A break through this routine seems imminent when he meets a very attractive women, who is determined to turn him into a house trained husband. She even gets him to present her to his parents as his fiancée. The parents applaud his choice. Only his sister sees that this relationship is heading nowhere, but no one listens (as seems standard operating procedure in this household).
Only the last half hour was interesting and worth seeing. I suspect that it must be my fault, because of the apparent fact that people around me looked like enjoying themselves, with several laughs where I failed to see the humor in the scene at hand. I appreciate that this first hour of the film is needed as context, but while waiting for something relevant to happen, the overload of (bleep) F-words and stereotypes did not help to pass the time. The latter was most apparent in his parent's house, where no one seems to listen (really listen) to the other, where the father continuously watches sport on TV, and more such things we also see in the daily soap opera.
The interesting part starts at the moment his self-appointed fiancée wants him to stop cleaning his house by himself, though he enjoys it and knows he is competent in this. But she insists, and considers this a simple sacrifice, something that a man needs to do for a woman he loves as a matter of course. We observe some hesitation but he gives in, unknowingly that she has more such sacrifices on her sleeve. Though each seems trivial when considered separately, we gradually see these "sacrifices" sowing a few extra bits of doubt.
Near the end of the film she explains her philosophy that bringing sacrifices to a woman, is a natural thing to do for a man. She considers this a love test, so it seems, for her a matter of principle. When he objects that this is a bit one sided, she reacts baffled as if she does not understand what he is saying.
(***warning***spoiler ahead***) In the meantime he met a totally different woman by accident, this time not harvested from an evening in the disco, the latter being the place where he used to pick up women and take them home to have sex, following by a wanking session before the laptop. Conversely, he has no sex with her initially. It is made very clear that they come to a mutual understanding on other grounds. He confesses his porn addiction to her, and she helps him finding out why his wanking before a laptop screen is more satisfying than real sex. Eventually, the expected happy end comes about.
As said before, the first hour was a bit of a drag to me, though the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it and had several laughs where I failed to see the humor of the scene at hand. Yet, the story takes an interesting turn in the last half hour. A second compensation may lie in the casting and acting, both adding much to making this film enjoyable to watch. Let me conclude with assuming that my problems with the first hour are my fault, and won't probably apply to you as a candidate viewer of this film expecting entertainment. Given that this film was part of the Panaroma Special section of the Berlinale 2013, I can only assume that the festival programmers saw some quality in it, something that I cannot confirm after the fact.