To start with, the Romanian title of the movie means “Fishing Sports”. A title which relates to more than one levels with the movie’s story. It seems that distributors, in their marketing fever, decide whether a title is attractive or not and change it in an arbitrary manner, hence the title “Hooked” in English, “Picnic” in French and “Κυριακάτικο Κάλεσμα” (i.e. Sunday Invitation) in Greek!
If one could find a similarity between a movie and a human being, one might say that this movie “keeps a low profile”. Do not get me wrong here. People that keep a low profile does not mean they do not have potential: most of the time, it is the other way around!
When I watched it, there were things that annoyed me: a hand held camera shifting from actor to actor, scanning the space between them was enervating for me. As it turned out at the end, the technique contributes more to the film than aesthetics and is one more tool in the hands of Andrian Sitaru.
It also seems that it is a film moving with a slow pace. From another point of view, it does give the chance to the spectator to assimilate the meaning of every scene taking place. When the movie ends, one wonders how did it manage to put so many questions forward and also, give back some answers! Questions like: how much one can stick to its values when a tough decision has to be made? If we faced a person full of kindness and love, are we in a position to recognize it, or we would consider it an idiot because it does not fit the usual behavior we encounter?
It is really difficult (if not impossible) to fully praise a movie without revealing its plot. Bottom line: it is a movie worth seeing.
My rating: 7/10
PS. A dear friend of mine said that I am probably lenient in my rating. Please consider that this is an austere judgement 🙂
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