Unsettling, Unnerving, Unsatisfying

Rating: 4/10 (25 January 2010)

This is a most widely-praised film, having won the Cannes Palm D'Or and the Golden Globes. I was attracted by its stark black-and-white photography seen in its previews and clips. I had to watch it.
This film starts off well enough, feeling like a suspense-mystery, as it relates the strange series of accidents and deaths in a small rural town in pre-WWI Germany. However, as it lumbers on, we get the feeling that this is going absolutely nowhere. It seems to be just a jumble of weird, even evil, events that involved the children of this town. This is definitely unsettling, unnerving and very difficult to watch and follow.
It was like a throwback to very old European films. Indeed it did not feel like a contemporary film at all. The acting was wooden. The editing was choppy. Scenes do not seem to lead logically to the next. I would understand leaving the ending open for the audience's interpretation. However, this film had crammed too many inexplicable and unrealistic occurrences that demand a resolution. To be left hanging at the end is quite a distressing disappointment after investing over two hours.