I enjoyed this film of the beloved Dutch novel, although I'm sure there are a lot of culture specific references I missed.
The dark, odd humor of Frits, a somewhat lost young man in his early 20s, who still lives at home and can't seem to make the leap to full adulthood is appealing, with a undertone of sadness. And the film shares his vaguely surreal, blackly comedic outlook. His mantra; "Things are bad. Otherwise I'm fine."
He is obsessed with a stuffed rabbit, confused about his sexuality, and completely out of sync with his parents.
What the film lacked, for me, was the deeply moving and even tragic power of the story to which I've now heard it compared several times "A Catcher in the Rye". This felt lighter, less substantial, if similar in seeing the world subjectively through the eyes of a less than centered young man. I quite liked it it, and will re-see it, but it didn't pack the kind of punch for me that Salinger's novel did.
