The Little Blonde Dead (1993) User Reviews

glorious acting in a beautiful little movie

[velijn · 7/10 · 13 August 2006]

The strangest thing about this movie is that you don't feel too sad about the boy's death (see earlier reviews). And that is because the chemistry between Kamerling and Tuinier (the father and his son) works so good and is so natural, that you feel they have lived a lifetime, which is indeed very satisfying.

Even stranger is the story of the writer, Boudewijn Büch, now deceased, who for years could maintain the fiction that he had indeed lost a son. If you would only take the book as evidence then you would agree that only a father in grief could tell such a powerful story. And the film seems to underwrite that notion.

There is some similarity with "Pay it Forward", and Haley Joel Osmend is quite the (little) actor, but "A small, blond death" is much more natural.

All in all an excellent and moving movie.

On a sad note: in 2010 Antonie Kamerling himself (who played the father) stepped out of this life; too young to be burdened with such a depressing end.

great film

[rutger19 · 9/10 · 23 October 2005]

First of all, let me state to day that you should also read the book. The book delves much deeper into the mind of the main character (Boudewijn) or in the movie (Valentijn). It also deals with how Valentijn became how he is nowadays and the child abuse from his father. (Please, read the passages in the book concerning the butterflies. so good)

Anyway, this is a movie site, so I will limit my attention to the movie. Valentijn is egotistical poet, only interested in living wild, sleeping around or other hedonistic outings. Suddenly, he meets up with (to him just another girl) his former school teacher and accidentally gets her pregnant. Valentijn does not seem eager to be a father and turns back to his former lifestyle. He leaves Mieke alone with their son.

Valentijn is ignorant at first, but during the movie he starts to care for his son. The boy grows up to be a lovable, sweet kid. Valentijn takes Mickey to his house, after a beating from Mieke. Valentijn can not combine his wild life with a stable fraternal home. He makes a lot of mistakes, but gradually Mickey becomes an unmissable piece of his life. Just after this takes place, Mickey starts to get headaches. Suddenly the boy dies after a fall. Mickey appeared to have had a tumor in his head, since birth.

After this, Valentijn realizes what he had, how he lost it and how he wasted the time he did have with his son. He burst out into tears and finds consolation from his former, estranged love Mieke. The movie ends with them both on a bike riding down Amsterdam over a bridge. They both look disillusioned and heartbroken.