Macerás ügyek (2001) User Reviews

Aboriginal lucidity

[ecsedizs · 12 November 2001]

Hajdu Szabolcs's first feature is a homage to the fascinating environment he grew up. A place where the blocks of flats fulfill the role of guardian angels and the rolling marbles represent both magic and gambling. Like dozens of miniature globes; the playgrounds are woods, oceans, and endless deserts. The world depicted in Macerás ügyek is a precise, clear-cut microcosm, with the rules only known by its inhabitants: actors and those people that once lived there.

Some of the best moments of the work are: a hilarious western parody scene between Zsoli and Brigi, and later Imi and Zsoli; an almost deadly wrestling event in a sauna; and a very intimate moment taking place at dawn.

Take the movie as a journey to your long forgotten past - wherever it took place - and you will surely enjoy this film a lot.

Badly written and chaotic

[meitschi · 3/10 · 1 October 2001]

CONTAINS SPOILERS I saw this film on the 2001 Hungarian Film Festival in Budapest. The film description said something about a "ménage à trois" where one guy falls for the other and the other one for a girl. Because homosexuality still fails to be adequately discussed in present-day Hungarian society, I hoped this film would explore the problem of such a "love-constellation". But unfortunately, the story took a completely different turn in the first ten minutes. The guy who falls in love with his best friend remains a marginal character, while the other guy, Imi (who is the main character) starts fighting with a third guy for the girl, Brigi. In spite that Imi is violent, doesn't talk much and is not very sympathetic, Brigi falls straight for him. After walking the whole night through abandoned meadows, they fall in love. (This sequence is the best in the whole film because it shows some real emotion.) Here, the story could end with a happy ending, but no, it culminates in a completely far-fetched "tragic" ending, where Imi and his rival lay down on the road to test their bravery (this is another duel in the fight for Brigi even though she has already chosen) and Imi is killed by a car - ironically, with Brigi sitting in it, rushing to find him.

Though the camerawork was generally good and the directing had some interesting elements, the screenplay was a catastrophe in my opinion, with too many (mystical) episodes that didn't fit into the story. Not to mention the uncritical representation of power conflicts between males, where the "beloved" woman is only one of the objects that can be possessed....

The director seems to be quite gifted but he'd better make films of good screenplays than write his own.