Off Screen (2005)

What’s wrong with Dutch Cinema? This is something I and lots of Dutch fellow reviewers with me, wonder on a frequent basis. All the efforts to stimulate the Dutch movie industry seem to be in vain. We had some pretty amazing titles in the past few years, even a few Oscar nominations and awards (Character, Antonia, Twin Sisters); a sign we Dutchies are capable of making good and decent movies. The thing is, most of the time Dutch productions are overly pretentious or amateuristic. Off Screen starring Jan Decleir and Jeroen Krabbé is far from the latter, has some pretty good acting, but suffers from major pretentiousness.

The story is loosely based on true events. Whenever that is stated at the opening credits, I tend to raise my eyebrows. In the case of Off Screen, the story was linked to a news event from some time ago about John Voerman (a bus driver, a role by Jan Decleir) who entered the Rembrandt Tower in Amsterdam and took some security guards hostage. The reason for his action was to get to speak to a Philips executive, Gerard Wesselinck (played by Jeroen Krabbé) to find hidden codes and subliminal messages sent out by widescreen televisions. As the movie progresses we get to see how the two of them meet and become friends and the events and circumstances that lead up to Voerman’s extreme resort.

Off Screen was directed by Pieter Kuijpers, who recently directed the critically acclaimed Van God Los (Godforsaken!) and who made some good casting choices. It is predominantly Decleir who puts psychological weight into his character and lifts this thriller from mediocriy. He proves to be perfectly capable of carrying off the complex character of the bus driver, who is not only separated from his wife and not allowed to see his children or grandchildren, but also loses his job. He manages to win the sympathy of the viewer by his humane performance. Krabbé’s performance is also quite admirable, although nothing compared to Decleir’s.

This all sounds pretty worthwhile, you might think. Well, it is, but somewhere it goes all wrong. It is hard to put your finger on it, but Off Screen derails when it comes to the execution and suspense. The film never gets really thrilling and suffers from some serious plot holes and pretentiousness. Krabbé’s character officiates as some 2005 Dutch Morpheus and Off Screen itself borrows (thoughsome may call it stealing) extensively from lots of American flicks such as The Matrix (which is a hard movie to equal, especially with restricted financial and technical means). The sound mix is truly horrible (there are some animated scene transitions that were derived directly from The Matrix which are excruciatingly loud, misplaced and ugly), but the dialogue is actually quite intelligible, which is not often the case in Dutch films.

Off Screen certainly has some interesting elements and I applaud Kuijpers for his intelligent attempt at portraying the possible events preceding the news item about a man occupying an office building as a result of his dissatisfaction about widescreen TVs. The course of events depicted in Off Screen are pure fiction and Decleir’s acting makes up for a lot and deserves sympathy. It is also interesting as Kuijpers tries not to spoil his audience too much with extensively spun-out plots, thereby leaving something for interpretation. However, Off Sceen as a whole remains a bit unbalanced and unsatisfying.

Directed by: Pieter Kuijpers
Starring: Jan Decleir, Jeroen Krabbé
Runtime: 100’
Release Dates: The Netherlands: 3 February
Official Website

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