Advocaat van de Hanen (1996)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Gerrit van Elst

Writers:

Gerrit van Elst (writer)
Kitty Verrips (writer)

Release Date:

9 May 1996 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Law Firm | Father Son Relationship | Alcoholic | Investigation | Death

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Pierre Bokma	...	Mr. Ernst Quispel
Margo Dames	...	Zwanet
Jaap Spijkers	...	Frank
Peter Oosthoek	...	Quispel Sr.
Yoka Berretty	...	Moeder Quispel
Roos Ouwehand	...	Roxanne
Marcel Hensema	...	Pixley
André Arend van de Noord	...	Kraker Kiliaan Noppen
Johan Simons	...	Vader Noppen
Beppie Melissen	...	Moeder Noppen
Daniella Remmers	...	Francine
Titus Muizelaar	...	De Moei
Hans Kesting	...	Hanekroot
Hans Croiset	...	Dr. Rollema
Hans Karsenbarg	...	Officier vanJustitie

Also Known As:

Punk Lawyer (informal English title)

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

Netherlands

Language:

Dutch

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:MA (TV rating)

Company:

Sigma Pictures Productions

Trivia:

Punks disrupted the shooting, forcing producer Matthijs van Heijningen to put a disclaimer at the end of the film that stated it was not based on the real-life story of Hans Kok.

This is no who dunnit, this is no lawyers drama

This is a psychological study of the main character, which sadly, doesn't work out that well. I have to say, I saw this movie with the volume level way down, so I might have missed some of the nuances in the dialogue.

Pierre Bokma's Ernst Quispel is a vodka drinking, severe midlife-crisis suffering lawyer, who witnesses the murder of a delinquent at a police station, committed by the officers. Instead of undertaking action, he proofs useless even to the victim's parents, and returns to his vodka. As the film progresses, Ernst starts realising that his life as he leads it, is utterly unsatisfying and decides after all to report what he's seen. He blossoms for a brief moment, even falling in love with his wife all over again, or maybe more accurately: for the first time, but soon he just plunges back into the vodka, feeling that he's lost the battle.

Despite an impressive presence of A-list actors, including Jaap Spijkers, Hans Kesting, Beppie Melissen and of course Pierre Bokma, it's very hard to sympathies with any of the characters. Ernst Quispel is a selfish and cynical man, who remains unhappy and – I think – quite disturbed, throughout the film. But whereas Kevin Spacey's character in American Beauty, to draw a twisted parallel, was fully likable, Ernst only remains the selfish and cynical man we saw at the beginning, which is kinda depressing. The other characters left me equally cold-blooded, for some reason.

I must say, the utter desperation of Bokma's character is quite haunting, but in my view it's completely misplaced against the backdrop of this murder in the Amsterdam punk scene, authorities of course being worse than the punks. It's quite confusing what to focus on. Is it the moral issues that matter, or is it Ernst's state of mind that matters?

So, overall, as a combination of confusion and lack of sympathy, it was quite disappointing. It may have been realistic (though, you have to wonder why depressing plots are always considered realistic), but it wasn't as engaging as I'd hoped it would be. In fact, apparently it was so vacant, that up to now, eight years after its release, none of the IMDb visitors have even made the effort to comment on it. 5/10.