The worst movie I have seen lately has to be Dutch. A less than heart warming movie about a misunderstood little rich kid and his mother’s working class boyfriend traveling home for thanks giving dinner. They go on to a have a not so exciting adventure with a totally ridiculous story driving this train wreck. Not only is everything that happens in this story totally unbelievable. Each event gives you another reason to dislike one of the characters a little more.
By the end of this movie I found myself not caring if these to made it home or died in the process. In the beginning of the story the boy’s mother and father have gotten a divorce. I was a messy affair leaving the mother at the mercy of the father. She has moved on and started dating a man named Dutch with a working class background. The boy, Henry, is away at boarding school awaiting his father’s visit that will never happen.
The mother desperate to be there for her son tries to convince him to come see her for the holiday. Henry refuses because he blames his mother for not making her marriage work. And this is were the whole thing falls apart. The mother, Mary, decides that she would really like for her son to come to her house. So she sends Dutch to go up and bring the boy to her. So off like a bounty hunter in the old west Dutch goes out to get his man.
And our adventure begins. Now right here is were I get a little confused. I just can’t help to wonder why Dutch, a man this poor boy has never met, is going to pick him up. Its not like this school is an hour away its a couple a day’s in the car together. And this might be ok under better conditions.
But, considering that this child has a lot of anger towards his mother. You would think that this would be a good opportunity for them to talk. Not to mention the fact that Henry hasn’t excepted his parents divorce and the last thing he is going to want to do is meet her new boyfriend, who is taking his father’s place in Mary’s life. His mother doesn’t even consider coming with.
Not that she is busy or any thing. She just feels that Dutch can handle it. Making her seem very week and helpless. Not the type of roll model I would want for my daughter. Then we get to meat this poor mistreated little rich kid.
And after just a few minutes we end up feeling like this little brat might not even be good enough for these less than desirable parents. We first see him when his mother calls him to invite him to Thanksgiving dinner, since his father asked her to cancels the plans he and Henry had. When a small boy comes to get him for the call he immediately starts to intimidate him. He gets on the phone with his mother and immediately dismisses any thing she has to say. He goes on to blame her for the family not being together any more. Then after he takes the call all the other boys come out to throw paper planes at him and laugh at his misfortune.
This might have been some sort of attempt to show us how upset Henry really is. All is showed me was a kid taking every advantage of his situation. He is only worried about himself. He not only doesn’t thank the younger boy for coming all the way up stairs to tell him his mother is on the phone.
He freaks out, yelling at him for not knocking on the open door. We see that he is not a liked person when he has a fight with his mother on the phone and his class mates come out not to console him but to throw paper air planes and laugh. Not that this seen even makes sense. It’s almost as if someone put just part of that seen in and no one noticed in time. Then comes the boyfriend. He shows up at Henry’s room before he gets there.
He just walks right in and starts walking around. Then he starts going though the boy’s things he looks trough cabinets under folders and any where else he feel the need to snoop. Henry walks into the room and starts to throw Dutch around like a rag doll. He ends the pummeling with a few shots from a pellet gun. After fumbling around like some sort of fish out of water Dutch finely gets his composure and grabs the gun from the 12 year old Henry.
Even if you did believe that this little boy could throw around a grown man. The seen just doesnt make sense. What are these people thinking? Dutch just goes to get this kid and nobody even bothers to call and let him know he is coming. Then to show up and start looking through the kids things. That is a complete violation of Henry’s personal space.
Who does this guy think he is. Maybe it’s just me. But I don’t think dating someone dose not give you the right to search their kids room. Not the way to win him over. He deserved to have the kid kick him were it counts. After that I just don’t see how this is going to be good person to spend some time with this already misguided child.
They then go on to have a boring and uneventful trip back home for thanksgiving dinner. Never giving you any reason to believe that you should even consider these people a human. Which makes it hard to care about the character’s plight. A problem only compounded by the complete lack of acting skills.Bibliography:
