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 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)

The already abbreviated original looks more like an initial hint and outline for a much more extensive material, but it is saved by Sverak's language mastery and wrapped in a precisely matched captivating mix of a boy's mostly summer adventure full of smiling, every day and dramatic moments from growing up in the countryside during the occupation. It´s just a more dramatic variation on There Were Five of Us or Les récrés du petit Nicolas. Although the adaptation largely slavishly and with no context illustrates the scenes from the short story, but what is missing is a safety net made of kind humor and playful Czech language. In addition, there is no dramatic framework and, what is most reprehensible, is that a life vest in the form of a distinctive children's point of view through the adventures of “us, boys, who go out together and experience all kinds of adventures" is completely missing. The result is a nice and incoherent patchwork of better and worse fragments of scenes that is captured in a “watchable" way, nothing more and nothing less. (01/01/2019)

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)

The film didn't disappoint me outright, but I had hoped it would be even funnier, with more humor from Zdeněk Svěrák, but it's a bit weaker in that regard. As a nostalgic film, it works, especially thanks to the great child characters. The storyline revolving around the character of Vlk (Oldřich Kaiser) had much more potential within it. (20/08/2017)