13 Reviews
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60 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
Flawed, but still a good experience.
Houellebecq's literary style is famously one of an essayist using a fairly simple plot structure as a hook to attach his lengthy polemics on the state of modern european society. Most reviews of this film have seen this work as a brave effort but an exercise that was flawed from the beginning. There is a lot of truth in that, but I stil enjoyed watching this film...
Published on 28 Oct 2006 by Bruno
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Not a patch on the book
This movie is interesting for those fascinated by Houellebecq's written masterpiece. However, it all too quickly skipped over the key part at the end of the novel. Micheal is relegated to the minor part here, with Bruno having the lead role. Hence, the sex angle is overplayed (as you'd expect). Something of a missed opportunity here.
Published 16 months ago by Mr. J. Stewart
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60 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
Flawed, but still a good experience., 28 Oct 2006
Houellebecq's literary style is famously one of an essayist using a fairly simple plot structure as a hook to attach his lengthy polemics on the state of modern european society. Most reviews of this film have seen this work as a brave effort but an exercise that was flawed from the beginning. There is a lot of truth in that, but I stil enjoyed watching this film tremendously, 'Atomised' is one Houellebecq novel which does contain a number of classic visual passages and most of these have been transcribed here to film very effectively (such as the hilarious massage scene at the naturist camp). Still, the final impression served is one of a little too crude version of the message presented in the original novel. Undoubtedly, Atomised the novel was about the despair engendered by the realisation that life for humans is a tragic sexual struggle leading ultimately to nowhere, merely causing pain, aggression and suffering on the way, factors magnified by the moral and social 'atomisation' of modern society. But the film seems more of a simplistic diatrabe against the evils of sexual pleasure and all forms of liberal morality that condone it. Read the novel, on the other hand, and you realise that Houellebecq's position is a lot more complex than this (although I do think he is rather inconsistant in that novel, great though it is). Something not helped, by the one glaring devation from the book being the 'happy' ending for the Michel, the sex free brother.
Houellebecq certainly doesn't want us to be living in a Taliban style society or I doubt even a Victorian one where sex is a dirty word. I don't think he really even wants sex to be abolished scientifically, which is the outcome of both the novel and the film, for as 'Possibility of an Island' made explicit, such a fate would make us cease to be human at all (or make life worth living). His novels are in fact, complex mediations on whether humans can be happy despite their animal derived biological and psychological natures, whether morality and sex can ever truly be seperated, and whether 'sexual love' can ever be a source of pleasure and long term happiness when nature has not only given men and women differnet bodies, but also different biological and psychological needs from sexual love.
The film also contains a hugely disjointed element - some of it is in english (when Michel moves to Ireland), and whilst the German spoken acting seems convincing, the English dialogue sounds a little trite and very badly delivered.
Still, if you are a fan of Houellebecq, I'm sure like me, you will delight in seeing his unique view of the world brought into living action, even if not entirely satisfyingly. Thats why I'm rating it 5 stars.
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39 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
Fiction reflecting real life...., 20 Aug 2007
If you've ever suffered the three 'd's' - divorce, desperation or depression then this poignant tale will ring a bell with you. It provides an insight into the positive and negative aspects of mundane versus bold, repression vs the free spirit and most of all proves the male caring instinct is never far away... Try this out, you wont be disappointed.
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29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
Atomised-A review, 22 Jul 2007
If you like to be really deeply moved by contemporary European film then this is a must. The mid life stories of 2 40s German half brothers as they go through major, fundamental and irrevocable life changes. I was brought to tears from the portrayal of their respective histories and tragedies. So typically German in its seriousness and depiction of a society still resonating from its profound 20th century traumas the story took me on a roller coaster ride similar to Head On. Hard and heavy but so real and so true.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Not a patch on the book, 25 April 2008
This movie is interesting for those fascinated by Houellebecq's written masterpiece. However, it all too quickly skipped over the key part at the end of the novel. Micheal is relegated to the minor part here, with Bruno having the lead role. Hence, the sex angle is overplayed (as you'd expect). Something of a missed opportunity here.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Fairly random and uninteresting, 10 Feb 2008
I found this film rather dull, with a rambling plot that didn't seem to go anywhere. This was a shame as there are some great actors in it - Moritz Bleibtreu and Franka Potente from Run, Lola, Run, Martina Gedeck from The Lives of Others, and a cameo from the excellent Uwe Ochsenknecht. I guess you need to be into the book (or at least to have read it) in order to make any real sense of the film.
Towards the end, the storyline involving Martina Gedeck was the most touching part of the film, but as another reviewer mentioned it's very difficult to feel any empathy with or interest in the largely unappealing characters.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Death of love?, 8 Mar 2008
A good attempt to bring a difficult book onto the screen. It doesn't give rise to comfortable viewing, although I expect most people will have read `atomised' before coming to the film and therefore will know what to expect. Houellebecq excellence is in showing us how we really are, rather than glossing over the ugliness. He has given us a mirror to look at ourselves.
Modern society, with all its material progress has failed to provide stable relationships that most long for and the hope of 60's utopian ideals, have fallen by the wayside. The film doesn't have the scope or time to move beyond the central message of `atomised' and isn't as effective a medium at presenting the characters inner complexities. However there is still enough, to make it thoughtful and provocative.
It probably does too good a job, in representing the book. Where the book lacked tight structure and lyrical style, similarly the film lacks the images that would make it great. And like the novel it sometime falls into adolescent pretentiousness. Ultimately it overcomes these flaws as a film of ideas and a rare examination of a modern society which most people will sadly ignore in favour of escapism and entertainment.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Boring, 27 Jan 2009
Lacklustre plot strung out too long,certificate wrong could have been twelve.Seen more excitement watching two flies racing up a window.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
tragic yet hopeful, 3 Feb 2008
This film is really worth seeing-all actors give brilliant performances, especially, in my opinion, Martina Gedeck (das Leben der Anderen). These are characters you can really sympathise with-the film sets up the histories of the two brothers really well, giving viewers a deeper insight into why they make the choices they make. Heartbreaking in some places, yet always hopeful about the future, this is a beautiful film. Well worth watching.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A surprise pleasure, 31 Jan 2008
Slightly contrived in places, so not earning 5 stars, this is none the less a very enjoyable movie: darkly humorous and very well acted by a great ensemble cast. If you enjoy "Adaptation" or a Coen brothers' comedy you should find this rewarding viewing.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
As if done by an under acheiving art school film maker, 29 Jan 2008
The whole thing is pretty cliched and insensitive. Maybe it is the German aspect of the film that is fairly indigestible but the sympathy for the characters is just not forthcoming. Are we supposed to feel sympathetic towards to the groping teacher or the nerd who seems to think that the future of human's rely on non-sexual reproduction.
It's probably one of those semi-arty films for those who haven't really thought too much about the futility of their existence.
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