DVD reviews
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"...this final chapter remains almost deliberately over-talky, uneventful and drab..."
Ben Hur
"..a 4 hour melodramatic spectacle, but it’s still wonderful to watch."
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Ben X (DVD)
Year:
Rating: M
Distributor: Aztec
The Film: 4.0
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5
This little film from Belgium is something of a first, as it brings the gamer world into cinema not as a blockbuster spin off, but rather as a genuine character trait. The eponymous Ben (Greg Timmermans) is a painfully shy, anorak-wearing "weirdo" who is mercilessly bullied at school. His parents take him off to a succession of more or less useless shrinks who waffle on about Asperger's Syndrome. It seems that no one can help Ben until he meets the punky, independent spirit Scarlite (Laura Verlinden), who gently brings him into the loving human world. Their relationship is nicely done, and you really begin to hope for the impossible with Ben.
With its Donnie Darko-ish overtones and bravura visual style, Ben X could well be a talking point movie, and it has already attracted film festival kudos. The attempts to visualise Ben's gamer sensibility - seeing the world as gamer graphics etc - doesn't always work, but for gamers it will probably be the central appeal of the film. The other problem is that, although he gives a sensitive performance, newcomer Timmermans really is too old for the part. Still, the teen film genre is quite a crowded market, and it needs something as fresh and bold as this to cut through.