I was really excited to see it based on OKP, but was kind of let down.

It had a great score and was visually impressive, but it had way too many long long scenes of walking, walking away, walking...

My wife gave up on it after the scene of Janos tucking his uncle into bed, although it was the very long scene with the truck arriving with the whale that was the first sign she would probably quit the movie. I managed to make it to the end... only by watching numerous parts of the movie in fast forward (until the dialogue started up again). Maybe this was a disservice to the enjoyment of the movie as it was intended, but it was honestly the ONLY way I could have finished it.


Things I liked:
- the score (although I missed some of it while watching in fast-forward)
- the visuals
- the atmosphere created by the above
- the intro scene with the drunks re-enacting the solar system
- the scene when Janos meets the whale and his interpretation of what the whale represents (my favorite scene)
- the music theory monologue

But aside from that, it was hours of nothing happening.

Maybe I simply didn't get it. Some questions maybe someone can kindly answer for me:

- Was the mob targeting the rich, the bourgeois, those with political connections, or what? I don't get why they attacked the hospital, or killed Janos's uncle.

- What was with the brightly-lit, nude, old guy that dispels the mob? Why did he have such an impact on them?

- Why did the man accost Janos when he was passing through the square next to the whale while on his errands? Was he an obvious outsider to the mob?

- Similarly, why was his name on the list at the end? Wasn't the army's (?) list supposed to be for people who were in the mob, and not ordinary citizens?

- Why did it end with Janos institutionalized? I was on the verge of falling asleep at that point so I may have missed something important in understanding the ending.


I'm not really knocking it, because clearly this movie has a lot to offer the right audience. Maybe this movie just wasn't for me.

I tried to like it, but I seem to have lost my capacity to enjoy arty concept movies (if I ever had such capacity to begin with).