| Product: |
The Ketchup Effect (DVD) |
| Date: |
02/11/05 (773 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Wonderful acting, funny, heart warming a great teen school movie. Not American!!!
Disadvantages: subtitled and only seems to be being shown at film festivals :o(
Americans love their teenage high school films, the number of them being continuously made, released and getting huge audiences shows their popularity. Very rarely do any of them have any real quality or adult crossover appeal though, Clueless & Mean Girls being the best examples of reaching a bigger audience successfully. Ketchup Effect easily reaches the quality and enjoyability of those two.
It shows us that the problems of teenagers are the same the whole world over. The life of Sofie, who turns 13 during the film, and the trials she goes through are sure to strike a chord with everyone. Everyone has seen, or been through, the kind of emotions she has to deal with.
Sofie and her two best friends, Emma and Amanda, are moving up to a new school and like every teenager before and after all she wants is to be liked and to attract the attention of one of the good looking cool guys in the school.
Unfortunately for her and her friends they just do not have the right look to fit into the ‘in’ group or to be liked by the cool guys. Sofie just isn’t set for the easy life, after all why make the film if everything was going to be perfect?
Sofie gets herself invited to a party where the boy of her dreams is going to be. It doesn’t go quite according to plan and fed up she starts drinking and gets very drunk. The ‘cool guys’ notice this and take advantage of her by taking some photos of her with them. While nothing actually happened Sofie gains a reputation at her school that only makes her life even more unbearable.
What follows is a teenage romantic comedy/drama of real class. Though my teenage years are long since gone (though I may not act like it!) the dialogue and situations that Sofie finds herself in are believable and realistic. No one does or says anything that sounds or looks out of place. The group of actors gathered by the makers are wonderful, not because they are great actors but because they are real, they actually look the right age! They are not 20+ year olds pretending to be teenagers and this does make a big difference and perhaps this is part of the reason the dialogue and acting are so realistic, they kids themselves would act like their ages and possibly even bring their own experiences to the film.
It’s funny but I have a feeling that others are not going to enjoy this as much as I did. I think back and try to work out why I felt such a warm feeling inside me as I watched this and I really couldn’t put my finger on it. It reminds me a lot of another great Scandinavian film (Ketchup Effect is a Swedish film)’Together’. That is another film that is truly superb but when you recommend it and try to explain why you find yourself at a loss for words. You just cannot quite work out exactly what makes it such a feel good movie and
Maybe The Ketchup Effect is one of those movies that maybe hits that zeitgeist moment and makes you love it just for that, maybe it just brings back memories school as we (or perhaps I!) remember it as opposed to the American sickly sweet versions.
The Ketchup Effect also has THE biggest laugh out loud moment I have seen in a film for a long, long time. The whole audience burst out into spontaneous laughter at what could be said to be the scene that determined the title. What was it that was so funny? Do you really think I would tell you?
The sad thing is I don’t know whether this will ever get a proper cinema release. It is a very minor release in the whole scheme of things. Having said that it does seem to be turning up on the schedule of an awful lot of film festivals around the country, which is where I saw it. In fact I was working at the time it was on and was seating people. While doing that you have to watch the first fifteen minutes to make sure the picture quality, sound and subtitles are working and be ready for latecomers.
Those first 15 minutes caught hold of me so much that when I came out after those 15 minutes I checked the times for the other films showing and then asked the other ushers (the employed ones as I was a volunteer) if they minded if I went back in to see it. THAT is how much I wanted to see this film and I am so glad I did!
Though I really do hope that someone picks this up and at least releases it on DVD, it really does deserve to be seen by more people!
Running Time: 90 minutes
Certificate: BBFC have not given it one yet.
Summary: A wonderful exploration of teenage life.
|
|
