Barefoot

Filming is something Jan Svěrák hasn't forgotten how to do, but creating picturesque images and working with a retro atmosphere alone is not enough for a fulfilling cinematic experience. You also need a functional screenplay. I don't know why Jan didn't utilize his father's abilities, who is one of the best screenwriters of the last decades. Barefoot does not work, and when I use this term, I really mean it doesn't work from a dramaturgical standpoint. Even though Jan Svěrák fills his film with plenty of stuff, in the end, it is incredibly empty. You don't just need memories, you have to piece them together properly. This film is helped to a considerable extent by sentiment, but I won't assist it in that, as there are plenty of others who can. Overall impression: 45%. I can't help but have a reservation about Oldřich Kaiser's casting. Even though there is not a big age difference between Vetchý and Kaiser, the years when Kaiser was drinking heavily have unfortunately taken their toll on him, so he could actually play Vetchý's father. By the way, both he and Ondřej Vetchý are slightly too old for Tereza Voříšková and their little son... The scene by the pond, where Voříšková and Kaiser exchange a long, emotionally charged gaze, and in which it is evident that the director wants to evoke in the viewer the impression of either a platonic or fulfilled past relationship, brings to mind associations with pedophilia more than anything else. (17/09/2017)

I wanted to like it so badly. I was ready to enjoy the expected heartwarming drama and vise-like kindness, but unfortunately I got a film where that is completely absent. In fact, there's almost nothing there. It looks nice, and as far as the production design and costumes goes, I can't fault Barefoot at all, but in all other respects it's wretched. And a mess. The film goes from nowhere to nowhere, and although it is framed by a period and bites into some interesting conflicts, eighty percent of the running time is ultimately completely useless. Trying to cram in as many "flashbacks" as possible results in there being no time for anything and because of that, the humor doesn't work, the drama doesn't work, and the poignancy doesn't work. Most of the time I felt like someone had dropped two minutes of a scene that should have been fifteen minutes long, and I have little idea why I should be watching the boys tackle a classmate, that Eda might get a slap on the wrist, that the dad is at odds with his brother, and that a pigeon has gone missing. There's never time to pay attention to anything properly and the result is such a nice looking film where there's an awful lot going on, but for most of it you'll probably ask yourself why you don't really care about any of it. Too bad. (21/08/2017)

I was expecting to laugh a bit more, but the mood of the film was rather melancholy. I was okay with that as soon as I realized that this wasn't going to be one of Svěrák’s typical comedies, and I quite enjoyed the film. I really liked the atmosphere of rural idyll spiced up with war events. What I loved were the performances of Oldřich Kaiser and Tereza Voříšková and the film’s subtle humor. It was an incredibly relaxing and feel-good film. (06/03/2018)

It has some magical moments that prove that Svěrák Jr. is a really good director. I appreciate the view of the war through children's eyes, but the story is too disjointed; it needed a unifying line. The story of Uncle Wolf, which was supposed to cement the narrative, isn't enough to pull the whole film together. It's a shame, I really wanted to love this film. (01/01/2019)

I find it hard to review this... I love the book and audiobook very much, it has the beautiful atmosphere of childhood memories, it's warm, and the little guy's view of big things in it is magical. Zdeněk Svěrák the writer was able to write it, Zdeněk Svěrák the actor can also tell the story... But while Jan Svěrák the director was able to film it, Jan Svěrák the screenwriter unfortunately couldn't tell it as well as his father. Hard to say if it was even possible... But some scenes should have been longer or should not have been there at all, some situations in turn definitely should have been shown to viewers so that they and Eda would not learn them only secondhand (we should have seen at least the “grandmother who was coming toward them" or “Péťa who flew off") and then it would have been more pleasant, more coherent. And I didn't understand the purpose of one change from the book, where the mom and Eda meet someone else at the pond. But just so I don’t complain so much, I must commend the actors (Ondřej Vetchý is particularly accurate, Tereza Voříšková, with a few exceptions, feels very natural, Oldřich Kaiser is a certainty, and Jan Tříska as well), the music by Michal Novinski, the believable period atmosphere, the nicely captured countryside and plot of reviving scenes of Eda's imaginations. Three and a half. (18/08/2017)