The Glorious Works of G.F. Zwaen (2015) User Reviews

A little disappointing, but still good enough.

[punishmentpark · 7/10 · 16 May 2016]

Max Porcelijn's follow-up to his feature debut 'Plan C', a thoroughly fun and apt crime comedy with dramatic elements. 'De Grote Zwaen' presents us with a lot of the same actors as his first, although the lead is now played by Peter van de Witte, who is (in Holland anyway) better known for his work in cabaret. I had expected much from him, especially after seeing the trailer, but I was a little disappointed; the other actors mostly overshadowed him, and his character wasn't all that interesting all the time (just like those colleagues he kept meeting up with).

The story concerns some iffy characters, some bad guys, a big sum of money, and quite a few complications in what at first seems to be a pretty simple plan - much like 'Plan C' and many other crime comedies. On the one hand, there's plenty clichés here, of which some are working just fine, but there are others that are just a little too plain and boring. The parts played by Michiel Romeyn, Ton Kas, Ruben van de Meer and René van 't Hof are the best and amount to some very memorable, dialogue driven scenes. Then, there are few terrific comedic bits, such as the car driving into two trees... that's the stuff classics are made of.

All in all, it wasn't as good as 'Plan C', but certainly entertaining enough. A good 7 out of 10.

seriously violent thriller from The Netherlands

[myriamlenys · 6/10 · 21 January 2019]

A writer called Zwaen is going through a rough patch : his rich wife has divorced him and his work doesn't sell well. Worse, his most recent novel meets with general indifference. When he notices an opportunity to get very very very rich, he grabs it, without realizing that this will put him on a collision course with professional gangsters...

A mixed bag, this one. The plot, although not stunningly innovative, is suspenseful and there is a vein of dark wit to counterbalance the violence. (The movie has a death count worthy of "Hamlet".) For instance : watch the scene where the author quarrels with his ex-wife, a psychiatrist. Angrily, he storms into her house - and realizes, too late, that she is listening to a very young patient. This does not stop him from telling the bemused child that it shouldn't accept any gifts from that nasty, naughty lady... Part of the dialogue too is pretty funny, with a typically Dutch sense of humour.

On the other hand I thought that the quality of the acting was uneven. Some of the actors were average, at best ; others were so riveting that they could have kept their public spell-bound by reciting the Egyptian Book of the Dead, in the original version. The whole was not entirely convincing.