Shuttlecock (2020) User Reviews

Much missing

[douglasgeiger · 6/10 · 24 January 2024]

I can see where this could be an interesting book, inside characters' heads, or at least the main protagonist's. But the film is WAY too slow in providing motivations: it mostly seems like the son belongs in his father's mental institution - there's no clue WHY he's obsessed with his father's wartime exploits to the point of destroying his own family - the grandson, his son, is entirely justified in his estrangement.

I guess this was supposed to be some kind of "psychological mystery" or thriller ... but it's just flat. I kept waiting for some explanations, some clues to behaviors, but they were withheld so long that one loses interest BECAUSE what IS going on is not sufficiently engaging. The protagonist comes across as just an asshole to his family.

Slow Burn

[sharonkathleenjohnson · 9/10 · 19 January 2023]

The secrets of the past are best left alone unless the price is ones own sanity. Three generations are forever bound by a truth that must not be spoken. So much rests on the universal need for straightforward heros. War is messy and men often governed by instinct; armed conflicts compromise us all. With a detective's intuition, the son of a war hero obsesses over the wartime activities of his father and because of his desperate quest, three generations are able to bond in a singularly awkward British way in spite of human failing. The dialogue and plot are completely believable and naturalistic, the cinematography topnotch, and the stately and slightly deteriorated Portuguese settings are shabbily beautiful. It rings very true as a psychological thriller rooted in human and familial despair. In the end, the lust for truth outweighs all other desires.