The Notebook or "A nagy füzet" was given by their father to two young boys to write down everything they do or feel during the later years of World War II. The twins are given to their grandmother as the father has to go to war. Initially, they get beaten and verbally abused by the grandmother day in and day out, and also by many others of the townsfolk. That changes when they start hardening themselves in the rough times and stand up to the offenders. They even start building a real bond with the grandmother, although I was a bit surprised that it finally proved so strong that they preferred to stay there and not leave with their mother. At least the verbal abuse was still very common. It just felt like they didn't really mind anymore. While the child actors were fine, I thought Piroska Molnár playing the grandmother was the real highlight of the film acting-wise. I quite like Ulrich Matthes too and even if he was only in the early and final parts of the film, he did a very fine job. Especially watching him at the tense scenario near the end (clearly in the role of the victim and the boys being not really his sons anymore, but more flight "helpers" to him in crossing the border) of the film was edge-of-the-seat material.
One thing I thought was done very well was how the boys were really portrayed as one soul in two bodies and really nothing except raw physical violence could separate them from each other. One factor that added a lot to this closeness was how we never were told their names, which would have characterized them as two individuals. I have to admit this may be possibly the film from 2013 (and I've seen really a lot) that was bar any humor remotely. I almost had to laugh at the kids beating each other to harden up or when they were rolling the injured grandmother through the snow. There was obviously nothing funny about that, but it was some kind of unintentional situational comedy or maybe it was just me wanting some kind of temporary relief from this very bleak piece of filmmaking. One thing I wasn't too fond of were the characters of Noethen and Tambrea and their strange homosexual(?) relationship. They probably had to include it as it was in the book, but I have to say I wouldn't have missed anything if they had done without it.
Apart from that, we see the twins meet several characters, including two weirdly fascinating females who both face rather sad fates in the end, and their interactions are maybe the most interesting thing about this film. All in all, I'd recommend it. It's set during World War II, but I never really felt it was that war-related, or only as the setting. It's more about the fate of the boys and how they are dealing with the invisible threat that changed them completely.
One thing I thought was done very well was how the boys were really portrayed as one soul in two bodies and really nothing except raw physical violence could separate them from each other. One factor that added a lot to this closeness was how we never were told their names, which would have characterized them as two individuals. I have to admit this may be possibly the film from 2013 (and I've seen really a lot) that was bar any humor remotely. I almost had to laugh at the kids beating each other to harden up or when they were rolling the injured grandmother through the snow. There was obviously nothing funny about that, but it was some kind of unintentional situational comedy or maybe it was just me wanting some kind of temporary relief from this very bleak piece of filmmaking. One thing I wasn't too fond of were the characters of Noethen and Tambrea and their strange homosexual(?) relationship. They probably had to include it as it was in the book, but I have to say I wouldn't have missed anything if they had done without it.
Apart from that, we see the twins meet several characters, including two weirdly fascinating females who both face rather sad fates in the end, and their interactions are maybe the most interesting thing about this film. All in all, I'd recommend it. It's set during World War II, but I never really felt it was that war-related, or only as the setting. It's more about the fate of the boys and how they are dealing with the invisible threat that changed them completely.