Started well,ended....Beginning is absolutely amazing:strange,heartbroken,sad,lonely and extremely captivating.Later,I felt that originality run out and director followed ideas from couple of other European films,which did it before and way better.That's killed it for me...Trying to use shock value for the sake of saving the ending of the film is a very low way for a decent filmmaker.Being objective:5 stars for amazing first half and very good acting from the main actress.Can't really recommend...Sorry...
5 Reviews
A Touching Film About a Lonely Woman
Cinematic_Bullshit2 May 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Urzula Antoniak is someone who understands loneliness. She understands her emotions very well and knows how to express them in a way you can understand, even when a film uses mainly visually storytelling and minimal dialogue. I can say that after watching Nothing Personal and now Code Blue.
It's a movie about a lonely nurse, Marian, who attaches herself to her patients because she has no one else to share with. And who better than the elderly, who can be seen to be in state more vulnerable than her. They need her help and when she gives them that help she feels useful. At one point she holds hands with an old man then euthanizes him. At another time when she tries to do the same, her the patient is frightened. It can't always work out the way she wishes.
When out for a run she helps an old woman with her groceries;they go inside her home to talk and the woman somehow can tell by the look on Marian's face that she's a sad, lonely woman. This scene felt a bit forced because I can't imagine a stranger casually inviting her in and making that immediate observation about her. And is Marian, who has trouble with people, really going to walk in and start conversing with the old woman? Nonetheless, pretty much everyone in her life knows her situation. She's asked if she's married? If she has anyone? Which must be awkward for her to answer especially at her age.
She, however is not the most easy person to sympathize with. From haggling over eighty cents at the market to witnessing a rape and doing nothing about it, her loneliness and isolation has probably made her less compassionate. And very lonely she must feel, for in one moment she takes the semen from a used condom she found on the ground and rubs it on her vagina. A scene that many may find disgusting, but I found poignant.
The ending to this film is not one I enjoyed. It was rather disturbing. I mean, I understand how pitiful this woman is and I didn't need to see her in such a pathetic state. Despite my problems with it, this is a touching film about loneliness that I highly recommend.
It's a movie about a lonely nurse, Marian, who attaches herself to her patients because she has no one else to share with. And who better than the elderly, who can be seen to be in state more vulnerable than her. They need her help and when she gives them that help she feels useful. At one point she holds hands with an old man then euthanizes him. At another time when she tries to do the same, her the patient is frightened. It can't always work out the way she wishes.
When out for a run she helps an old woman with her groceries;they go inside her home to talk and the woman somehow can tell by the look on Marian's face that she's a sad, lonely woman. This scene felt a bit forced because I can't imagine a stranger casually inviting her in and making that immediate observation about her. And is Marian, who has trouble with people, really going to walk in and start conversing with the old woman? Nonetheless, pretty much everyone in her life knows her situation. She's asked if she's married? If she has anyone? Which must be awkward for her to answer especially at her age.
She, however is not the most easy person to sympathize with. From haggling over eighty cents at the market to witnessing a rape and doing nothing about it, her loneliness and isolation has probably made her less compassionate. And very lonely she must feel, for in one moment she takes the semen from a used condom she found on the ground and rubs it on her vagina. A scene that many may find disgusting, but I found poignant.
The ending to this film is not one I enjoyed. It was rather disturbing. I mean, I understand how pitiful this woman is and I didn't need to see her in such a pathetic state. Despite my problems with it, this is a touching film about loneliness that I highly recommend.
Spoilers
arrieuking25 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Spoilers, for real. Everything in other people's reviews is accurate and I won't repeat them. This movie is very graphic and could be triggering for someone who's experienced sexual violence, even if it seem like a semi-consensual bdsm situation. Just the two cents that seem to be missing here.
Help.
punishmentpark8 September 2013
Warning: Spoilers
What a crazy little film this was, working some of its magic in afterthought. Excuse me for making a wild connection, but this felt more like a giallo than a drama, though there are no knives, no black gloves or a far fetched denouement at the end.
There ís a series of murders though, but we know 'whodunnit' and there is a certain progression there; the first death happens in an operating room and isn't a murder, but we do see the protagonist - a middle aged nurse, strangely (?) reminiscent of the redeemed Lucia de B. - taking a 'souvenir' from the dead patient. Then we see her connecting on her own with a patient, whom she later 'helps' die, and it looks like the patient is okay with that. Yet even later she wants to 'help' a patient again, but this one protests - to no avail, though he does wound her and this causes quite a panic with her. We also learn that she has stolen many things from patients before, but still it doesn't prove she killed them all; I would still say things are starting to (really) get out of hand at the beginning of the film. In between, she tries to live her life, but it consists of sad incidents wherein she never really connects with anyone - she witnesses a rape from afar, but does nothing, she follows a man (a neighbor) into a video store, but later he ends up stalking her, and so it goes on.
The finale takes things up a notch and dóes in a way have that giallo-like denouement: the story had been playing with the notion of coincidence up until then, but the nurse and her neighbor meeting as friends of friends at a party is nothing short of over-the-top fateful. I won't reveal anything about the finale, except that even though I truly dislike the trend of putting in / out genitals for shock value, 'Code Blue' gets away with it, another strange, yet unrelated, coincidence...
In short, this is a suspenseful thriller (with plenty elements of drama), much focussing on the mental and physical vortex of a person losing control of her life, who doesn't seem to have started out being a bad person. Not as ugly and good as Marina De Van's 'Dans Ma Peau', but close, and well worth the reference. And of course kudos to Bien de Moor for her powerful performance and Urszula Antoniak for making such a bold movie.
A small 9 out 10.
There ís a series of murders though, but we know 'whodunnit' and there is a certain progression there; the first death happens in an operating room and isn't a murder, but we do see the protagonist - a middle aged nurse, strangely (?) reminiscent of the redeemed Lucia de B. - taking a 'souvenir' from the dead patient. Then we see her connecting on her own with a patient, whom she later 'helps' die, and it looks like the patient is okay with that. Yet even later she wants to 'help' a patient again, but this one protests - to no avail, though he does wound her and this causes quite a panic with her. We also learn that she has stolen many things from patients before, but still it doesn't prove she killed them all; I would still say things are starting to (really) get out of hand at the beginning of the film. In between, she tries to live her life, but it consists of sad incidents wherein she never really connects with anyone - she witnesses a rape from afar, but does nothing, she follows a man (a neighbor) into a video store, but later he ends up stalking her, and so it goes on.
The finale takes things up a notch and dóes in a way have that giallo-like denouement: the story had been playing with the notion of coincidence up until then, but the nurse and her neighbor meeting as friends of friends at a party is nothing short of over-the-top fateful. I won't reveal anything about the finale, except that even though I truly dislike the trend of putting in / out genitals for shock value, 'Code Blue' gets away with it, another strange, yet unrelated, coincidence...
In short, this is a suspenseful thriller (with plenty elements of drama), much focussing on the mental and physical vortex of a person losing control of her life, who doesn't seem to have started out being a bad person. Not as ugly and good as Marina De Van's 'Dans Ma Peau', but close, and well worth the reference. And of course kudos to Bien de Moor for her powerful performance and Urszula Antoniak for making such a bold movie.
A small 9 out 10.
A very special movie!
RodrigAndrisan6 January 2022
It's very slow, very silent, almost mute, there are just a few words, a little dialogue. The story is very simple and also very captivating. Well, if you have an intellectual level, it's not for any troglodyte who only wants to see punches, blood and special effects. The lead actress, Bien de Moor, is outstanding. The director, the Polish Urszula Antoniak, proves great cinematic mastery,
exacerbated sensitivity, special artistic sense. Absolutely to be seen, however, I repeat, not by everyone, but only by real and very intelligent moviegoers. No, it's not a thriller, as someone else wrote. It's a drama, a very sad and harsh film.
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