The Whistlers

The ending doesn't really work but it is impressive that the movie takes such a wild concept and makes it convincing for the most part. The recurring jokes and references to the ubiquity of American cultural are a nice touch.

Gimmicky si prea grijuliu

Canary Islands, gloomy clay from Bucharest, secret and alluring beauty, gangsters versus the police, big cash to be taken, plus el silbo - whistled language and a disappointing finale - a Romanian remedy for black, with a lack of wit, crime fiction.

Critics seem to love this. The trailer made it look like an intriguing comedy-thriller. It is not. Don’t be swayed by all the raves about Romanian New Wave and deliberately deadpan delivery, pulp fiction etc. It has an interesting premise, but there is zero connection between the viewer and any of the characters, not any credible connection between the characters themselves. One character goes to an island to learn a whole new whistling language, only to use it for about two sentences in the whole film? And after a certain number of double-crossings, it begins to not matter who’s side anyone is on.

Nah. Not in the least. I don’t understand how any of these plot points connect, who the characters are, what they want, what the timeline is. None of this film makes sense. Nothing is at stake. Everyone knows everything. I’m so surprised that it has such good reviews. I think that people were amazed that an “avant-garde” filmmaker could make something so “traditional.”

The ending doesn't really work but it is impressive that the movie takes such a wild concept and makes it convincing for the most part. The recurring jokes and references to the ubiquity of American cultural are a nice touch.

Really enjoyed the character development and the story's format. It rolls on at a steady pace, building the anticipation slowly. Just as it starts to reveal itself, it's as if the director goes for a prolonged break! From thereon, it seems to resort to a lacklustre and sleepy methodology, which is a real shame. With a little more effort, and a tad more tempo, this could have been something really special

Now This movie is not for everybody especially me. Maybe if it was in English I would connect with it more but in its current state it's just mediocre. The concept is pretty intriguing but overall it makes for a long bore of a movie night. Now I know that this is a arty Oscar type movie but still. This Oscar movies should connect with us but they don't. It's kind of a shame.

The Whistlers is twisty noir in which everyone is playing multiple angles. There are a couple fun surprises that come out of that, but really I think this movie feels more like the director just thinks the whistling language is really cool and wanted to build a film around it. We get lots of detail about proper finger and tongue placement. We learn that Romanian whistling and Spanish whistling have different consonants and vowels. And as someone who can't whistle I think it's pretty neat that the actors learn the language.

Now This movie is not for everybody especially me. Maybe if it was in English I would connect with it more but in its current state it’s just mediocre. The concept is pretty intriguing but overall it makes for a long bore of a movie night. Now I know that this is a arty Oscar type movie but still. This Oscar movies should connect with us but they don’t. It’s kind of a shame.