Martin and Eline (Bien De Moor) are the perfect
example of a happy couple. They live in a beautiful house, together with their
two children. For them it’s like living in a dream. But when they sign the deed
to purchase a summer residence in Tuscany, their fortune starts to crumble. The
disappearance of their bank manager with large sums of money causes a serious
of setbacks
that bring the perfect looking family to the ground. Or are these setbacks much
more the result of errors of judgment Martin made in an effort to secure his
status? In an attempt to protect his family and himself, Martin increasingly
gets caught in his own web of lies and cheating. The only way out seems to be a
drastic one.
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| A grand life style. |
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| Happy families? |
Directed by Geoffrey
Enthoven, the Belgium
film director, screenwriter and editor, this is a story of the hard done by
upper middle class. The poor souls discover that they are unable to afford a
second home in Tuscany, which for them seems like the end of the world. Does
Martin except that after his bank manager Fred has embezzled all his money and
that he is lucky his family live a life of luxury anyway and its certainly not
life and death that they need a holiday home!
Obviously the answers no - otherwise there would not be a story! Well he
askes his boss for a loan but his boss refuses and instead offers Martin a well
paid promotion in the pharmaceutical company were he works if he agrees to skip
further in-house testing of a new line in pills and go straight to human
testing to beat a rival company in marketing this new product. Martin gives the
proposition little thought before accepting. When the human guinea pigs start
to become seriously ill Martin realises his serious mistake. His life is
further complicated when he has an affair with his bosses sexy wife.
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| Eline is not enough for Martin.... |
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| ....he has to share his bosses wife! |
More like a
slightly overlong TV drama than a feature film but it did win an acting award
for the Flemish TV actor Ben Van Ostade who plays Martin. The
acting is generally believable and the DOP does a grand job highlighting the
family’s privileged life style. But the problem is that you know what is going to happen, it
just takes an eternity to get there!
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