AllMovie

Sharp and witty repartee enliven what otherwise might seem to be simply another painful exploration of dysfunctional relationships in this drama, based on a 1950s novel by Belgian writer Lucie Veldhuyzen-marchal. In the story, Jozef (Stefan de Walle) is a boarder in a family house in the south of Amsterdam (where the city's famous canals are a less common feature of the cityscape). He is a writer who is desperately seeking inspiration wherever he can find it. In his case, the family he is staying with is a gold mine of wonderful source material, from the secretive daughter (Ariane Schluter), to the reclusive, book-loving son (Jack Wouterse), to the overwhelming matron and mother who thinks she rules over the whole menage (Ineke Veenhoven). Things get really interesting for Jozef when Charles, the son, starts seeing the woman who lives across the street, a dizzy dame (Kathenka Woudenberg) who for some reason everybody suspects of being a murderess. As the story emerges, it begins to appear that it is really an enactment of the fevered imaginings of the writer, rather than something that is actually happening.