Bezdetná: An old-fashioned look at quiet domestic heavy lifting

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for pre-war European dramas that take their own social importance way too seriously, you might actually like Bezdetná. It is a slow, talky affair that assumes you are deeply invested in the domestic squabbles of people you don't really know.

However, if you need a film to move at more than a glacial pace, or if you get hives from watching characters stare out of windows while heavy, orchestral strings play, you are probably going to hate this. It is definitely not for the casual Friday night crowd.

The vibe is... heavy

The whole thing feels like being trapped in a drawing room that hasn't been aired out in a decade. There is this weird, palpable tension in every scene where someone is either about to cry or about to deliver a lecture on morality.

The pacing is, well, interesting. Sometimes a scene will linger on a single reaction shot of a character looking slightly inconvenienced for way longer than is necessary. I found myself checking my watch, not because I was bored, but because I couldn't believe they were still holding that shot.

Small observations

• The lighting in the living room sequences makes everyone look like they are perpetually standing in the middle of a thunderstorm, even when the sun is allegedly out.
• The dialogue is so formal it makes the characters sound like they are reading from a manual on how to be polite but miserable.
• There is a moment near the middle involving a tea service that I swear goes on for an eternity.

It’s funny, watching this reminded me a bit of the suffocating social expectations seen in The Gates of Gladness, where the personal drama is so tied to the house and the furniture that the house itself becomes a character. Except here, the house feels a bit more like a prison.

Is it a masterpiece? No. Does it feel like a film made by people who really wanted to say something about the way society treats people who don't fit the mold? Yes. Even if they get lost in their own seriousness half the time.

There is a specific look on the lead actor's face about forty minutes in—a sort of blank, tired stare—that feels so damn real. It is probably the most honest moment in the whole movie, even if the scene around it is clunky.

Random thoughts

Some of the background extras in the street scenes clearly have no idea what to do with their hands. It is distracting if you watch them for too long. Why are they just standing there holding newspapers like they are waiting for a bus that will never come?

It isn't as punchy as Emil and the Detectives, but then again, it’s not trying to be. It’s just trying to be heavy. And it succeeds at being heavy. Maybe a bit too much.