You know those films where it's really well done, it make you think and the performances are excellent and yet watching it made you feel all blergh? This is one of those.
Now, that can be a good thing. If your taste skews towards arthouse films and you don't mind watching something pretty challenging, I think you'll like this. However if you're someone who goes to the movies once or twice a year for a bit of light escapism, this is definitely not for you.
This is an Australian-made film with a Melburnian directing (Ariel Kleiman) but I doubt you'd guess that if you saw it not knowing.
Set somewhere in war-ravaged Eastern Europe, it's the story of Gregori (Vincent Cassel), who is basically a creepy cult leader, and his mission to recruits kids and train them to become assassins. It's the kind of plot which, in the wrong hands, could go very wrong but it's handled delicately by Kleiman.
I wonder if Kleiman wrote it off as part of the mystery as to where this film is set but I did find it a bit jolting when the accents didn't seem to add up. For example, at least one of the kids had a pretty clear Australian accent and hearing it really distracted me and jolted me out of the story.
Australian critics are divided. Two stars here from Fairfax and four stars here from News Ltd.
Trailer here.