Every director who means something in the Netherlands (or pretends to) will tell you what the problem is with Dutch cinema the last ten years. Ever since Alles is Liefde had both glowing reviews and major box office success, there is a minimum of 5 'romantic comedies' flooding the cinemas each year. As much as we Dutchies love to criticize Hollywood for milking the stuff that makes money until it dries out, we clearly are no better.
Now I am not the one to wallow about this being a structural problem, signifiying the lack of originality in Dutch cinema and all (as if book adaptations are so original). This seems mostly a male frustration, since these movies clearly cater to a female audience. Nor will I claim that they are all bad: I enjoyed Soof, Hartenstraat, De Surprise, and I will even say that Alles is Liefde/Familie were okay, even though I think they are hugely overrated. It is normal that the quality of movies in this genre varies somewhat, but you rarely see them as unfunny as this one.
This is an adaptation from a German original with a nice premise, where sadly very little actually works, and it's because the script is poor, and almost everyone seems to make the mistake that comedy is very serious business. Nothing could be further from the truth. Implausible premise? That should never be a problem in a comedy; in fact, as long as the jokes are good and the actors play along with the silliness, a crazy premise can be rich source of good humor, and the audience couldn't care less about things like logic. But for some reason, the actors seem to have been cast for looks rather than comedic timing, and there is a serious lack of good jokes and situations. If all the gags concerning family men are predictably about schmucks struggling with diapers, poor sex lives and nasty kids, and the only mildly funny joke concerns a graphic description of childbirth, you know that the screenwriter has taken the easy way out.
The few sappy oneliners with potential for laughs are mostly delivered in a dry, inert fashion (not the good, British deadpan variety, mind you), or they aren't appropriately retorted, because there is virtually no chemistry between the actors and most jokes fall flat on their face. A lot of 'bad' American comedies stil kind of work because there is a pleasant interaction between the actors, like a comedic duel where people try to outdo each other in sassy attitude. Fabian Jansen clearly had some potential as the stumbling and inapt brother, and this would have actually been funny if the other characters responded to his inaptitude in kind. But alas, the comedy potential of most situations is sorely underused. Beau van Erven Dorens seems to strike the right tongue-in-cheek tone, as one of the few actors, but whatever happened with class actress Eva van de Wijdeven that she is relegated to an insignificant supporting role where most of her bad jokes are about her not liking joga?
I say that when we copy the Americans, let's copy the stuff that is actually good about the American way of making movies, like appealing to a broad audience and having high production values; conventional plots and genre clichés we can do without. We used to ridicule Hollywood for featuring sex scenes where people keep their clothes and underwear on, but sadly, even we have now arrived at that low point, probably to obtain the PG rating so that children can also be admitted. As if kids should be shocked or offended by naked bodies. My generation will fondly remember the racy Dutch 80s classics like Flodder which featured full-frontal nudity jokes, and the whole family would be laughing. Kids and adults alike, no questions asked. I weep for the future.
