Phileine Zegt Sorry

Phileine Zegt Sorry (2003) from Tuna

This is a Dutch romantic comedy staring Kim van Kooten. Based on a popular novel full of one-liners, the concept is "dating woes from the female viewpoint." Phileine is tired of losing boyfriends, who invariably say they are sorry when they leave. In fact, she and her two best friends have come to despise the word "sorry." Her latest boyfriend announces that he is going to New York for a year to study Shakespeare. After pretending not to care, she follows him, and finds him living in a flat with several eccentric people. Worst of all, he is cast in the lead of a pornographic production of Romeo and Juliet opposite sexy Leona Philippo. When Phileine sneaks in to a rehearsal and sees that the show includes actual sex, she is decidedly not amused.

The film is full of fourth wall violations, with Phileine making comments to the audience, and her banter in Dutch and English is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. Your mileage may vary, but I thoroughly enjoyed this comedy. It won numerous awards for van Kooten's performance, which was excellent, and for cinematography, which includes an impressive sex scene on a revolving bed in a hotel room where it is pouring rain inside the room.

Interestingly, it is rated "12 and older" due to "pervasive language, nudity and sex." Man, it's good to be a 12 year old boy in The Netherlands! If you dislike subtitles or 4th wall violations, by all means skip it. Otherwise, it is well worth a rental for all fans of romantic comedies, and of course for all twelve-year-old Dutch boys.

DVD INFO

It is in Dutch and English with subtitles, and the Region 2 DVD includes a second disk of special features.

NUDITY REPORT

Kim van Kooten and Leona Phillippo show breasts and buns.

Some very old people of both sexes show way too much (everything) in a comic scene.

The Critics Vote ...

No English-language reviews online

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb readers say 6.2, but with a 7.3 from US voters.

It grossed between two and three million dollars in The Netherlands.

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

Our own guideline:

A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre.
B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)
C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are indistinguishable to you.
C means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others probably will not.
C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film, but films with this rating should be approached with caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C- and an E are indistinguishable to you.
D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-. Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor popular acceptance.
E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre.
F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C+, excellent foreign-language romantic comedy