Waiter (2006)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Most films about human life's ordinary characters are able to charm audiences as they depict the true feelings of human beings. Dutch film 'Ober' is one such film which succeeds enormously as it has chosen a very good theme. It is in the form of the depiction of a waiter who can be hailed as the most ordinary of all ordinary people. Director Alex Van Warmerdam is able to add extra strength to his film by playing the leading role. As the film begins, Alex is shown to bear all insults with utmost coolness and fortitude. However, as the film progresses, Alex decides to ask tough questions about his fate. This situation gives rise to a series of hilarious encounters with screen writers who exercise absolute control over their characters and their fates. In the field of art, an artist is given complete control to develop the characters. One must nevertheless ask the most pertinent questions : Who controls the life of a character ? Is it the character himself/herself who controls his/her destiny ? Does the character have an independent existence ? These questions do not have simple answers as a lot of subjective perspectives do come into picture. Director Alex Van Warmerdam makes a good try at answering them in his film "Ober". His film is a poignant plea for respecting all human beings regardless of their foibles.

"It's really funny to see this poor guy being used as boxing equipment by almost everyone." - says another commentator. Excuse me? What is so funny about that? I have watched that film patiently; I have live in Holland long enough to understand what most other foreign viewers would experience as just simply plain stupid - but if you think that broad audience outside of the Netherlands is going to appreciate this film, you are sadly mistaken. It was boring, with nudity, sex and slapping filling the gaps in the poor written story - and actually far worse than many of the really strong Dutch films I have seen. The only moment I found funny was with 4 Africans - there is a good point there about the "quality" of a Ducthman as a lover!

After all the positive words about this film, we went to see it yesterday. Granted, the film did have some rather funny moments. EeeeeEeeeeEEEE...But all in all, it did not leave a very good impression. Without spoiling anything of the storyline: some sad 50-year old guy named Edgar has a miserable life and decides to complain with the writer of his life's scenario, who as a consequence decides to make his life even more miserable and surreal.In this respect, the film's idea is quite (actually quite too) similar to the plot of Adaptation, with the same crazy consequences for the story. However, there are two main differences. First, because we know quite soon that Edgar is a fictive person, we cannot really be 'moved' by whatever harm is inflicted upon him. Second, the mental and physical abuse that is actually inflicted upon him is totally without any sense, purely sadistic and (with a few small exceptions) simply absolutely not funny. According to the scenario writer: "You simply should suffer". In my opinion, a story that is only about someone suffering for no apparent reason at all is not something you should be waiting for.Apparently, a great way to sell a bad script is to make it appear as written by someone inside the movie and make all kinds of metaphysical references around it.*** Spoilers below *** Really. Why does Edgar need neighbours that play excessively loud music in the direction of his wall? Why does he need to be physically assaulted by some idiots in the restaurant (if such people would really exist, they probably would be lynched)? Why doesn't he ever call the police? People are assaulted and killed and nobody does anything about it? People's character changes with every scene (the Japanese guy, anyone)? Very surreal, obviously, but also completely nonsensial.

I went into this expecting big things, but this is a mundane, rather dull comedy about a waiter character who, after being put through the wringer by his creator, begins to rebel against the author. Only toward the end does this idea take hold at all, but it doesn't make up for this silly, violent attempt at slapstick. At times it reminded me of Pauly Shore's movies. I saw it at the Pusan International Film Festival, and many of the Koreans, who have a tendency toward slapstick, loved it. But for me it was one of the worst movies I saw at the festival. It doesn't compare to the other comedy I saw at PIFF, Lars Von Trier's brilliant "The Boss of it All"