Corneliu Porumboiu's black comedy is impressive in that it is a decidedly philosophical film that still manages to feel like it is about actual human beings. It is also, occasionally at least, quite funny.
This tale of seemingly pointless police surveillance is intentionally plodding in pace, in part to show how the life of a cop mostly consists of tedium. It is tedious for the audience too, of course. I am rather infamous amongst my friends for my love of slow-moving movies, but even I was taxed by some of the film's scenes. Yet this deliberately challenging pace is broken up by some dry, but sharp humor that reveals Porumboiu to be a screen-writer of humanistic insight. (Rarely do films of this pace try to be funny. This one tries and succeeds.)
The humanity on display here is also unique in that this is first and foremost a philosophical film. It's outlook could, I suppose, be described as "post-structuralist" in that it's theme is that there is nothing beyond linguistic definitions shaping the law in the broadest sense, even laws of behavior that one might be tempted to ascribe to "human nature." Ultimately, all we know how to do, Prumboiu implies, is follow rules. This dreary conclusion is made all the more troubling by how human and multi-dimensional the characters come to seem.
This tale of seemingly pointless police surveillance is intentionally plodding in pace, in part to show how the life of a cop mostly consists of tedium. It is tedious for the audience too, of course. I am rather infamous amongst my friends for my love of slow-moving movies, but even I was taxed by some of the film's scenes. Yet this deliberately challenging pace is broken up by some dry, but sharp humor that reveals Porumboiu to be a screen-writer of humanistic insight. (Rarely do films of this pace try to be funny. This one tries and succeeds.)
The humanity on display here is also unique in that this is first and foremost a philosophical film. It's outlook could, I suppose, be described as "post-structuralist" in that it's theme is that there is nothing beyond linguistic definitions shaping the law in the broadest sense, even laws of behavior that one might be tempted to ascribe to "human nature." Ultimately, all we know how to do, Prumboiu implies, is follow rules. This dreary conclusion is made all the more troubling by how human and multi-dimensional the characters come to seem.