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Bluebird (2004)

Director: Mijke de Jong

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Movie review

From Time Out London

Sensibly spare, tremendously affecting teen drama from Holland about 13-year-old Merel, a girl who despite seemingly having everything going for her – intelligence, athleticism, musical talent, happy family relationships, especially with her disabled younger brother – is thrust into an introverted world of silent misery by the bullying of her classmates. Rightly, this has enough confidence not to dress up its hard-hitting subject matter, though it flirts precariously with teenage girl clichés (stealing make-up, piercings, ‘Anna Karenina’) and doesn’t quite maintain its momentum to the end.

Author: NFu

Time Out London Issue 1835: October 19-26 2005

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User reviews of this film

Ray Hyland said...

Posted on Nov 19 2007 18:09 Who fears to speak of their own turmoil and pain? Enter Merel, a teenager who gently lets the teenager and human being(rarely do the twain meet according to most adults) co-exist whilst been provoked and provided for often in unequal measures. The camera works as an excellent tool during the scenes with Casper, a disabled boy still spared the onslaught of adolesense. Its his scenes with his caring sister that provides us with real insight.The other chronicles vary in strength from some caustic scenes in the classroom(witness one of the bullies sanctimony during an open discussion of the same topic) the beautiful(a great show of athletism on the high board nearing the finale) and optimistic (Merel's occasional railway encounter's with Blackbird) What stops this from becoming traditional after school teen angst drama is simply that de Jong knows that his story can fly on its own unaided by tantrum fulled rock music or hackneyed devices such as a big revenge pay off. All in all a short but nicely sweet Dutch movie.

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