Tony 10 (2012) User Reviews

One of the worst "children movies" ever viewed

[nebukanezer · 2/10 · 5 February 2013]

Having taken my 9-year old son and 15 of his classmates to see this movie on my son's birthday (the cinema only had this movie running at the time-slot we were able to get this organized at) I think I can safely say, based on the feedback from the boys, that this is one of the most boring children's movies viewed at our local cinema for a very long time - if ever. One of the boys actually fell asleep in the middle of the movie - and most of them were thoroughly displeased with the film on the way home. My son was also quite upset - and his high hopes of a fun birthday celebration at the movies with classmates lay in ruins. Thank god for the vast amounts of popcorn and goodies we bought - or the whole event would have been a total disaster.

A few of my own thoughts on the film:

• The moral of the story, as it turns out, is that it's OK for parents to get divorced. Who the hell makes a movie which basically tells children it's OK to get divorced??? Not a suitable moral conclusion in my opinion for a children's move at all! Perhaps the film is meant as therapy for kids experiencing their parents' divorce? Who knows. - The storyline/plot is garbage and with not much going on apart from his parents being separated and him trying to get them together a couple of times. The only way they managed to make a film out of this is through extremely slow and long-drawn scenes with little happening. - The kid who played Tony did a fair job, with the exception being the lack of emotions despite the turbulent events he was experiencing. However, the entire crew of other actors were simply terrible. E.g. the father character was played so poorly, with constant exaggerated facial expressions, that it ruined every scene he appeared in. - In a couple of scenes Tony drives a truck. These were the only scenes where the boys paid much attention to the film at all. And this is the only reason I will give the film 2/10 instead of 1/10.

So for the love of god DO NOT spend money on this garbage. Not to mention buying tickets for 16 kids such as I did... :-/

Brilliant and touching

[ron-van-wieringen · 9/10 · 20 February 2012]

In the best (new) Dutch film tradition, Tony-10 is a beautiful film about a very unusual subject. After taking over a crane company, Tony's father is appointed secretary of state. This in itself is a very unusual story line, but it becomes much weirder (in a good way). Since Tony's father is away from home a lot, Tony starts to suspect that his father is in love. With the queen, that is. Tony decides to pay the queen a visit and tell her how he feels. He breaks in into her palace and finds her training on the ping-pong table. From that point on, there is a lot of charming interaction between Tony and the queen when they work together trying to straighten things out. The story evolves around the divorce of Tony's parents (of which he blames the queen) and has a lot of very beautiful, deeply touching moments. The queen is played by a charming Anette Malherbe. This actress, being the wife of Dutch film-maker Alex van Warmerdam, knows how to behave naturally in a bizarre story and puts down a wonderful performance. The young boy who plays Tony (Faas Wijn) also does a wonderful job. Throughout the story he is very credible, though being in an incredible story. The story is supported by great performances of Tony's mother and teacher. In short: go see this film, it's brilliant.