ABEL
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1987 Jeff Meyer
Seen at the Seattle Film Festival: ABEL (Netherlands, 1986) Director/Writer: Alex van Warmerdam Cast: Alex van Warmerdam, Henri Garcin, Olga Zuiderhock, Annet Matherbe Subtitled
ABEL is that standard staple of films everywhere, the family farce. Here we have a penthouse apartment inhabited by Abel, a 31-year-old eccentric who has never left the house, and likes to try to kill flies with scissors; and his parents, a Valkyrie-like mother, Dove, who indulges her son's behavior, and the strict, parochial father, Victor, who attempts to have them all lead a "normal life"--though his definition of normal is not particularly wide-spread (thank goodness!). The film opens with the growing friction between Abel and Victor, and the rather bizarre actions of Dove, and how it drives Victor out to find a mistress, Sis. As Dove and Abel become stranger and stranger, Victor be- comes more and more frustrated, until, one night, he throws Abel out of the house... and, by coincidence (this is a farce, after all), into the arms of Sis.
Mildly entertaining, with a few pretty funny parts, but don't go out of your way to see it. A D+, $1.50 film.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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