Review: Het leven uit een dag (2009)

[Steve Rhodes]

LIFE IN ONE DAY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2010 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  *** 1/2

Masterfully combining two of my favorite film genres -- science fiction and 
romance -- LIFE IN ONE DAY (HET LEVEN UIT EEN DAG) creates an intriguing 
world that never lost my attention for a minute.

First, a clarification is in order.  This isn't one of those sci-fi films 
filled with little green men.  Except that the story is set in an intriguing 
alternate reality, the people all look like you and me.  What is different 
is that the people in this version of the earth live their entire lives 
within a single day, going from baby to senior citizen in one 24-hour 
period.  When we meet Benny, played by several different child actors and 
one young adult (Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen), he is a baby suckling at 
his mother's breast.  That same day, his mother takes Benny, now a 
kindergartner, to school, where he and his fellow classmates will continue 
to mature until they leave to be young adults by the time the day ends. 
Benny becomes a fighter pilot that day as well.

Sure, the film has many logical problems, such as the parents not aging 
rapidly.  Maybe the film explained some of these apparent inconsistencies, 
and I missed it, but who cares.  The world the story creates is so 
fascinating that it's easy to just go with the flow and accept it all, 
especially since it is acted and scripted so convincingly.

When Benny and his fellow classmates giggle their way through the canonical 
sex education talk that kids with raging hormones are given, we learn 
something else about their reality.  It seems that passion, desire and sex 
only happens once for them.  It's an extremely intense and absolutely 
wonderful event, but once they have had sex with their partner and the 
impregnation has taken place, they stop caring about sex or love.  I kept 
thinking of the insect world in which, I think, similar things happen, but I 
digress.

When Benny meets the fetching and innocent looking Gini (Lois Dols de Jong), 
they both realize that they have found their mates.  Their sex is beautiful 
but brief.  Their love is palpable, sweet and touching and the actors' 
chemistry is quite genuine.

But, as rebellious teens are sometimes apt to do, Benny and Gini wonder if 
their preordained life might have some escape clause.  They think they've 
found it, when they remember their teachers' description of hell.  While 
life on earth is over in a single, happy day, people sent to hell are forced 
to relive the same events again and again.

So, even if their teachers have told them how awful hell is, they see it as 
a possible salvation.  They do have a single worry.  Will they be able to 
find each other once they get to hell?  There is also the problem of exactly 
how they go about booking a ride on the train to hell.  (I am sorry to say 
that the movie needlessly gives this away in the opening scene.  I would 
have preferred to have been completely surprised.)

The movie has two very distinct parts.  The first is quite clear, while the 
second ... not so much.  Having the two parts adds significantly to the 
film's compelling story, but writer and director Mark de Cloe makes one 
crucial error.  The first part should go on longer, while the second becomes 
somewhat repetitive and could have been shortened.  A two thirds, one third 
split would have been just about perfect for the time allocation.

The second half attempts and completely succeeds with a cinematic technique 
that usually becomes an awkward distraction.  The screen is split in half. 
I've never seen this technique work successfully for more than a few minutes 
max.  But this film never has you wishing they would stop the silliness and 
get back to a single frame.

Finally, the film ends with a long, soaring musical number that is 
fantastic.  I loved it and the film itself.  It is the sort of movie that 
makes you want to go back and see it again, perhaps several times.  It's 
also the type of movie that divides viewers.  In talking with people 
afterwards, I found people split between those who loved it, as I did, and 
an equal number who hated it.

LIFE IN ONE DAY runs 1:34.  The film is in Dutch with English subtitles.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival 
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 23 through March 7, 2010.

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