I see this movie is a bit polarizing here on IMDB as some people describe it as a masterpiece and it is only us stupid Americans that do not understand its brilliance while others hate it saying it is a pointless movie with virtually no plot. Where do I fall in? I say it was an interesting movie that does fall apart due to the fact it literally had a non-ending. Seriously, us Americans may not be as smart as you Europeans, but this film literally had no ending, any idiot could see that. Oh, and by the way, movies here in America are made with explosives and all that stuff and pretty much dumbed down for European and other foreign lands so take that for what it is worth. I enjoyed aspects of this film very much and I thought it was racing towards some thrilling conclusion, but it seems to me someone did not know how they wanted this thing to end. Either the director did not like the original ending in the book, or the book had a really anticlimactic end to it and the director didn't want to change it (yes, this film is based on a book).
So, the story has a woman whose son is apparently killed by a wolf writing to a man who has written a book about a wolf he had tracked and killed. He comes to the very isolated community to at first try to reason with the woman, but then decides to try and hunt the wolf; however, he is not there one day before this woman is acting very strangely. Her husband is injured in the Middle East and he too behaves a bit strangely. At first, one thinks that perhaps they are just in shock over the loss of their son, but soon the wolf hunter learns that the boy was killed by his mother and she goes on the run setting off a violent pursuit by the husband who kills anyone in his way while the hunter looks on stunned by the violence that begins to rule the day.
The film at times seemed as if something supernatural was going on, and that could be the case, but I cannot say for sure because the movie just kind of ends without any type of real resolution. The film is about a descent into darkness where the husband and wife seem to be becoming more animal like in nature and me and my fiance started to think that perhaps the wife was a werewolf and she wanted the hunter to kill her, but then the husband comes in and starts killing everyone who had nothing to do with his son's death. Apparently, in the book the wife and husband were also brother and sister; however, this is not as clear in the film as only a couple of clues hinted at this relationship between the two. Still doesn't explain their motives or the lack of an ending.
So, it was an interesting watch and I would have scored the film higher, but the ending totally came out of nowhere and was so anticlimactic that it ruined all that had preceded it. I am curious to read the book now just to see if it too ended in such a fashion, or what I would hope to find something that brings closure to the story. I was watching this and then the film ended and both me and my fiance were like, "WTH!" Made me think the thing ended prematurely or something. Still, good acting, good setting, this film just needed some work in terms of the story and the finish.
So, the story has a woman whose son is apparently killed by a wolf writing to a man who has written a book about a wolf he had tracked and killed. He comes to the very isolated community to at first try to reason with the woman, but then decides to try and hunt the wolf; however, he is not there one day before this woman is acting very strangely. Her husband is injured in the Middle East and he too behaves a bit strangely. At first, one thinks that perhaps they are just in shock over the loss of their son, but soon the wolf hunter learns that the boy was killed by his mother and she goes on the run setting off a violent pursuit by the husband who kills anyone in his way while the hunter looks on stunned by the violence that begins to rule the day.
The film at times seemed as if something supernatural was going on, and that could be the case, but I cannot say for sure because the movie just kind of ends without any type of real resolution. The film is about a descent into darkness where the husband and wife seem to be becoming more animal like in nature and me and my fiance started to think that perhaps the wife was a werewolf and she wanted the hunter to kill her, but then the husband comes in and starts killing everyone who had nothing to do with his son's death. Apparently, in the book the wife and husband were also brother and sister; however, this is not as clear in the film as only a couple of clues hinted at this relationship between the two. Still doesn't explain their motives or the lack of an ending.
So, it was an interesting watch and I would have scored the film higher, but the ending totally came out of nowhere and was so anticlimactic that it ruined all that had preceded it. I am curious to read the book now just to see if it too ended in such a fashion, or what I would hope to find something that brings closure to the story. I was watching this and then the film ended and both me and my fiance were like, "WTH!" Made me think the thing ended prematurely or something. Still, good acting, good setting, this film just needed some work in terms of the story and the finish.