Zomerhitte

When Jan Wolkers, one of the best Dutch writers of Dutch literary history, was asked to write a 'boekenweekgeschenk', he wrote a beautiful story, which introduced young, novice readers to the literary world. The book had a fantastic plot, and really emphasized the power love can have. Above all, the story is told like it's a dream.

Then the movie rights were sold and the book got adapted. It's a good thing Jan Wolkers already passed away when this film was released, because I am sure this would've really disappointed him. The creators did exactly what Dutch films are notorious for: they tried to turn the book into a thriller with non stop action.

At the part where the book ends, the film continues for another 15 minutes. In these 15 minutes, the most unlikely things happen. I found it difficult to watch this film in the first place, but at the part where they started making up these unlikely things I actually turned it off, I didn't even want to watch the ending after the whole story got messed up so badly.

All I can say is that it's a pity that they adapted this book into a movie. That's one thing that should not be done to high quality literary masterpieces. The reason I rated this movie 6 stars is just because it is based on a book of Jan Wolkers. I hope that many people will read his book after (or before) watching this movie or after reading this review and that they will realise that the storyline in the book was way better than the one in the movie.