I guess a lot of people will be disappointed by the movie expecting either a funny games rip off or a modern day torture-porn movie by the straight plot of "Cherry Tree Lane". Thank god its neither... the plot is simple... a middle class couple sits at the dinner table when some gangster friends of their son turn up, take them hostage and hint to plans of killing their son for snitching on one of the gangsters cousins. The couple is bound and gagged and they are waiting for the son to come home. That is the basic setup... there is little dialog, the unfolding is slow and all physical violence is shown off screen. So this is no exploitation movie. From early on its playing on the differences between the couple and the teenage gangsters. There is no common ground here and its all in the little things like when they flip through the DVDs, the choice of drinks and TV channels with lack of interest. There are many similarities to movies like Eden Lake here, especially because this movie takes things to one and another extreme until the credits roll. At first I thought the idea of introducing 2 girls and their little brother in the mid of the movie was a bit off reality but it made total sense in taking hints (like the constant tossing of things) in how they all are as ignorant towards each other as they are to the couple and the situation itself to a more direct level.
Its quite a different approach for this subject and many will focus on the violence itself or complain about a lack of on screen violence. This is not a movie for you, so stay away. And although I wouldn't put Funny Games and Cherry Tree Lane in one drawer this is a movie that serves many Haneke elements up until an end that does not resolve anything. Its a pretty bleak movie and its one in a row with many like Eden Lake, Harry Brown, London to Brighton etc. ... I guess its a sign of the times ... and Britain seems a lot more damaged than the rest of the world today.
Its quite a different approach for this subject and many will focus on the violence itself or complain about a lack of on screen violence. This is not a movie for you, so stay away. And although I wouldn't put Funny Games and Cherry Tree Lane in one drawer this is a movie that serves many Haneke elements up until an end that does not resolve anything. Its a pretty bleak movie and its one in a row with many like Eden Lake, Harry Brown, London to Brighton etc. ... I guess its a sign of the times ... and Britain seems a lot more damaged than the rest of the world today.