Liever verliefd (2003) Online

This was a cool, fun, and funny romantic comedy. It's good for lots of laughs when a girl who just got ditched by a guy that decided to go back to his wife after all, decides to stop falling in love and act like a man.. I.e. She ends up dating two guys at the same time, and yup.. falls for both of them. Keeps the feel-good factor rolling, and even manages a wacky and acceptable climax :) Beats a lot of the crappy films out there at the moment ;) Must be seen (preferably accompanied by girl/boyfriend (guess it fits the chick-flick category too)

I saw this film at a sneak preview, in a sold-out theater. With most sneak previews, a lot of people go away after 20 or 30 minutes. Not with this film. It is the story of a young woman, Anna (Van Reeden) who decides never to fall in love again, and then meets 2 men - one a rather muscular construction worker (Zegers), the other a daydreaming piano playing romantic (Conen) - both of whom she of course eventually falls in love with. She initially tries to keep her two boyfriends, not knowing that the two men are best friends and even room mates. The film makes use of practically all of the conventions of a classic romantic comedy, yet it keeps the viewer engaged in the drama of all three main characters. Van Reeden portrays a very funny, sympathetic, even lovable Anna, Zegers looks absolutely great (girls started giggling as soon as he appeared) and plays his finest role yet, and Conen proves to be an extraordinary comedian. Guest appearances of Wendy van Dijk, Belgian actor Michaël Pas and even Sjoukje Hooijmaaijer seem well chosen. The use of a lot of classic and more recent Dutch pophits (Dolly Dots, Willeke Alberti, but also Twarres, Krezip and Birgit) is remarkable, keeping the film going at all times, and appealing to everyone's memories of old friends, lovers and days gone by. People who like very sophisticated character development may be somewhat disappointed, but this film is a must-see if you're in for a light, yet sparkling and very funny romantic comedy.

Yes, as others have said already: this film is utterly predictable. The script combines two popular comedy plots: that of a romantic comedy and that of a secret double life. It's not even a new idea to combine those two plots; that's also been done many times before. But the special thing about this film is that it doesn't try to deviate from the standard development of either plot, not even to make the story more realistic. That gives an extremely predictable development of events, but ironically, at the same time a highly unlikely one (in real life). It's this irony that gives the film its comic character.

Especially, this becomes clear in its end development. According to the standard format of the romantic comedy, the boy should get the girl in the end. The secret-double-life plot dictates that the secret should be revealed in a climax toward the end. And because all three characters are 'good guys', they all must win. And the ending must be happy. That all logically means that both guys should get the girl, and should be happy with that. How do you solve that? The scriptwriters Bohlinger and van Hoeve came up for a solution for this, without straying from the standard format, and this results in a pretty absurd ending. That is in itself not so predictable, and is quite comical.

In this sense, you could even say that this film is a parody of predictable romantic comedies (although Bohlinger and van Hoeve probably didn't mean it a as such), showing the absurd result when you take the standard format to extremes. And as such, it's quite fun to watch.

The only trouble I have with the film is that the characters, and their developments, could be stronger. I'd like to see Anna struggle more, not only trying not to fall in love, but also trying to show a different self than she is. Sander's interaction with Susan looks genuine, but that with Anna doesn't, and I would like to see more of his happiness when Anna saves him from his depression. And Rob seems courageous, but I don't really see the womanizer who is changing his ways. I know that many people in real life don't show those characters so clearly, and in this sense it may be realistic. But that's not what you want to see in a film.

What a terrible movie, too predictable in all its facets. From the beginning you can imagine every little detail of what is going to be happen next. A pity, because dutch movies just started to get on a higher level. However, 'Liever Verliefd' confirms exactly the prejudice about dutch movies...