Andrew Wyeth meets Stephen King

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2010)

This was an unforgettable movie experience. I don't recall ever seeing such starkly beautiful cinematography, where every frame seemed like an Alfred Stieglitz black and white photograph. The artistic nature of this film seemed to combine the rustic simplicity of Andrew Wyeth's paintings coupled with the literature of Stephen King. The trailers seemed a bit pretentious, but the rave movie critic reviews now seem well deserved. The story itself had a slow but ominous development, where the people of a rustic pre-WWI German village are experiencing various accidents and wanton acts of vandalism. It's unclear who is at fault, and much of the storyline falls around who the culprits could be. I found the pace fit very well with the plot development. The movie really kept me on the edge of my seat. The dialogue and plot are all very good, and the camera work and photography are truly one of a kind.
Many might find the plot too slow and the characters too harsh and unlikable. Yet the character development was excellent and the screenplay seemed as though it could have been written by Thomas Mann. I hadn't seen any of the other Best Foreign Movie Oscar nominations but it wouldn't surprise me at all if this film walked off with the prize. It was outstanding.