If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle (Florian Serban, 2010): Romania/Sweden

Reviewed by Ulrika Bjorck at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2011.

It didn’t take long for me to make up my mind of how I felt about If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle. It was grey and depressing to say the least. And not only that. It was also, in my opinion, not very good acting and no music to create an excitement to it either. It felt almost like an amateur created this to be honest.  I just didn’t get this movie at all. Maybe there are others that do.

We get to follow Silviu, played by George Pistereanu, a young man who has spent several years in a youth penitentiary in the outskirt of a small town in Romania. One day his mother comes to visit him, just to tell him that she’s going to bring his little brother with her to Italy. His relationship to his mother was bad as it already was; she never really took care of her two sons. He got this news just a couple of weeks before he was supposed to be released from prison. He had been looking forward get out as a free man, starting a new life together with his brother.  And now when his mother, who he already detested, came with this news Silviu rapidly started to lose his mind. It didn’t take long until he found himself in the middle of a hostage situation, him being the hostage taker.

When I was just reading the resume of this movie before I saw it, I thought that the story seemed really exciting. It sounded like it had such a good content. With high expectations I entered the theatre, but as I early mentioned it took about three minutes for me to realize that I wouldn’t appreciate this movie. But, of course one can sometimes be wrong. So I decided to give it about ten more minutes, to make up my mind. Unfortunately I didn’t change it. I don’t know which fact I disliked the most, that it was long silent pauses, or the depressing atmosphere. But I do know that a really good director is probably able to make a good movie even with both of those ingredients. All of it was filmed with a hand camera. I have to say, even that could have been made into a cool effect. But in this case it just made me feel sick.

I stayed during the whole film, but I looked at my watch approximately once every five minutes, hoping for it to end. I know that I’m being pretty harsh on this one, but it is definitely my point of view, I just found it meaningless, really. But I do have to say, even though I didn’t like it at all, I will defiantly remember it. If that is a good or bad thing, I can’t really decide. But I won’t recommend anyone to go pay money to see it. I guess if you would get paid to see it, you could always consider it.

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Published:
02.03.11 / 11pm
Category:
Films, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011