Character (Karakter) - Movie Review

The Dutch film Character (Karakter) examines strong characters indicating the title might be a noun. There are strong characteristics examined which surround the ambition of a rising young lawyer and what he is willing to compromise for his success. It examines quirks in the personalities of a few of the major roles, lending me to believe that maybe the title should be applied as a verb. Either way, it is a slow but brilliant piece of cinema. Perhaps the title was chosen for it's dual meaning.

Dreverhaven (Jan Decleir) is a powerful, larger-than-life bailiff in 1920s Netherlands. Yet he is not the center of this film. His former house keeper, Joba (Betty Shuurman) gets pregnant after a single fling and abruptly leaves. Dreverhaven pursues her from a distance but never seems to put a real effort into marrying her and raising their son, Jacob Katadreuffe (Fedja van Huet). Instead, Jacob and Joba move from one place to another. 1920s Netherlands was a tough place to be a single mother. In those days, the term "unwed mother" was pronounced "whore."

Jacob discovers books in one of their homes and develops a ferocious appetite for reading. He manages to teach himself English. He also quickly realizes that he is very different from his mother (or is he?) She is silent and internal. Jacob desperately wants to escape. When he takes a loan from a local bank to invest in a Cigar Shop, he ends up getting swindled and goes into bankruptcy (a bit different from the way the term is applied in the United States). Jacob soon finds out that his father, Deverhaven is responsible for his ill fortune (or maybe a debt is a debt regardless of who the parties are to the agreement).

A long-standing battle ensues between Jacob and Deverhaven. It almost feels as if Deverhaven has chosen to take out his anger with Joba on their son. On the other hand, by Deverhaven's own mouth, his intent is to "strangle him for nine-tenths, and the last tenth will make his strong." Jacob never manages to see things in that light, viewing their relationship as an on-going challenge...a battle of wits. Jacob uses his keen intellect, good timing and cunning to get himself hired by a local firm. He is taken under the wing of an odd but good man named De Gankalaar (Victor Low). The latter seems to take an interest in the young man and becomes a new father figure to him. The entire story unfolds as Jacob is being questioned in the death of Deverhaven, having been the last living person to have been with Deverhaven before he was found with a knife buried in his stomach.

Character presents an interesting story. It begins near the ending of the story, with the history being filled in with narrative by Jacob while he is being questioned by authorities in Deverhaven's death. The story works well as a flashback, with the ending somewhat predictable. The story sets up a limited number of possibilities for an ending. As the background progresses, details about Deverhaven emerge that foreshadow the ending enough that is becomes fairly easy to predict. But that didn't make the ride less enjoyable. The exceptional dialogue and quirky character studies keeps the film interesting even during distracting periods when the films wanes a bit. Strong characters and dialogue with some interesting symbolism and somewhat predictable ending manage to equal good cinema. Mike van Diem adapted Ferdinand Bordewijk's story to the screen and directed it exceptionally well.

Strong characters fail when weak actors are given reign over them. Character avoided that pitfall with an exceptional cast. I was not familiar with the cast, which made the performances even more enjoyable. The physical attributes of some of the actors added even greater dimension to the roles. Decleir was ruthlessly awesome as the iron bailiff. His stage presence was profound. Van Huet has a milder composition with an internal quality that made his character special. Jacob is sort of a prodigy that sees the world through rose-colored glasses (most of the time). He is also consumed at times with his battle to succeed which seems to equal his battle with Dreverhaven. Van Huet brings that character to life and makes Jacob engage the audience. I did not care much for Joba, but that may have been part of Shuurman's appeal. She was very subtle with few lines. Not attractive, humble or particularly intelligent. Grounded and firm might be better adjectives. If I were Jacob, I would have wanted to move out, too. So I guess that is a credit to Shuurman's performance.

Low had an odd underbite and air about him that initially put me off. Yet the chemistry he shared with Van Huet seemed genuine. Very fatherly. Low sort of grows on you to the point that you hate to see him depart. Jacob also has an odd (and fate induced) relationship with Lorna Te George (Tamar van den Dop) who works in his office. The chemistry between the two was incredibly strong yet intentionally left strained. It was an intersting sub-plot that added depth to Jacob's character and provided insight into the extent of his drive. Character was exceptionally well cast.

The MPAA oddly gave an R Rating to Character. I am uncertain why the rating was so severe. I do not recall any nudity or adult themes other than Joba getting pregnant out of wedlock. The precursor to her "condition" was not portrayed...only alluded to. There was strong language (like Bastard and Whore) but they were obviously contextual and central to the story. The only objectionable material was violence that was all contextual and not very graphic. There were some mob scenes, a knife wound, a death modestly portrayed and a decent physical confrontation...but the "gore factor" was incredibly low. Teens and older should be fine. Run time is two hours, two minutes.

I enjoyed Character on many levels. Although slow in a few spots, the film was engaging. The exceptional characters were eccentric but not unbelievable. The performances managed to take the strong character studies and bring them to life. The dialogue was rich and filled with small nuggets of symbolism or ideas that furthered the story. The cinematography was artistically visual. Although the plot ending was predictable, the journey was great fun. I would highly recommend this film, which justifiably won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. 8/10.

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