(This review may contain spoilers).
While I don’t normally watch films set during wartime, I was intrigued by the trailer of this movie. And since I recognised the two main actors in this movie, I knew it would be a good plot.
This movie was almost divided into two halves. While those two halves were both intense in their own way, it was good they were also different enough to be engaging in their own way.
I did, however, feel like the first half was a bit rushed. While I had the impression quite a bit of time had passed by, I couldn’t quite believe in the feelings Max and Marianne had towards each other. In a way, it did feel like the second half of the movie made the reasons for that clear… but I found much of the second half difficult to suspend my disbelief for, especially during a scene with a jail. Of course, I don’t know very many details about this time period, so I couldn’t speak for how realistic it was. There were two women clearly romantically involved… but there was very little detail about either of them, even though one was Max’s sister. I would have liked some more exploration of their characters and how they interacted with Max and Marianne, rather than just being two rather generic women.
I did think that Max’s and Marianne’s interactions through the first half of the movie did a good job of establishing Max’s personality and it was good to see he had a goal for the end of the movie.
I found the second half of the movie more intense to watch and found myself leaning forward, on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what would happen. I would have preferred the ending to be different… but I honestly couldn’t have seen it ending another way.
While I did become engaged with this movie and cared about the characters and the plot, I don’t think this is a movie I would watch again, as it doesn’t feel I would gain much from re-watching it.
Ink of Blood 