Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

sindavide I give a 5 because the aforementioned good points: soundtrack, acting, photography. Unfortunately the message of the film is twisted, confused and quite wrong. As if dictatorships and fascism existed because of neglected children. Come on. Where is history? Historical context is only an almost meaningless background, totally absent from the chore of the story and cause of events. It's been replaced by Freudian childhood traumas. The connection between the unhappy childhood, unempathic mother, absent father and the soviet- like uniforms in the end is totally arbitrary, as if fascism and socialism were the same. Could have been a good film if only the writers had studied some history and were a bit cultured. This film is a cheap and pretentious try to make a meaningful work. For ignorant people who like to think highly of themselves.

bseaman-20248 This movie wasn't such a turgid, loud blast (as others have suggested, why the need for such cacophony in the sound track?) that I shut it off to view something else. The scenes with a gorgeously, icily charismatic Argentinean actress named Berenice Bego were enough to keep me watching. I also found the depiction of the stilted and repressed manners of that era to be fascinating. Finally, the film was well-shot, creating a moody and foreboding sense.However, if you are less of a film buff and simply want a 100 minute escape from reality, let me sum the film up for you and gently encourage you to find something else on Netflix. Here's the synopsis. A girlish-looking boy of about 10 who for some never-really disclosed reason is always dressed in skirts tosses some stones at people outside of church, pees the bed, is churlish toward the hired help, locks himself in his room in a temper tantrum, and throws another tantrum by standing on a chair at dinner party and yelling that he won't say a prayer. Cue discordant, blaring music. Then we see an apparent 30-something dictator being driven through throngs of cheering people. The director asks us to make the leap that we have just seen how the dictator's upbringing as a child has made him a dictator. It's a bit of stretch.

rhoda-9 You're led to expect something really powerful and frightening by the opening shots of World War I and a nerve-jangling, portentous score. And, indeed, your expectations are well rewarded when the child of the title...wets his bed! plays an angel in the church Christmas play!It's hardly a bold or singular premise that a disturbed childhood will create a damaged, perhaps dangerous adult. But the movie's portrayal of cause and effect is so simplified as to be ridiculous. Plenty of neglected children--the condition is hardly the rarity the filmmakers seem to think, especially among wealthy people 100 years ago--grow up to be normal adults. Some become nasty ones. Some, in reaction, become humanitarians. If the cause and effect are so cut and dried, why don't we have 50 million fascist dictators? Could it be because a great many emotional and intellectual attributes, a great many factors of class and opportunity and geography and history are necessary for someone to become a fascist dictator? An unhappy childhood is hardly the only qualification!The script and director also ignore the most basic rules of portraying an unhappy childhood, rules that have been followed by every writer and director of merit. First: If you cry, they won't. Kipling, Graham Greene, Henry James, Dickens--everyone who has done this well has shown the mistreated child suffering in silence or near-silence, so that the reader or film-goer supplies the emotions of sadness and anger and indignation. In this film, however, the child is constantly outraged, insolent, aggressive, at times violent, so he pre-empts all our emotions. It is hard not to regard him as simply a nuisance and a bore. Second, feeling sorry for a character is not enough to make us like him or even be interested in him. The boy is front and center in almost the entire film. But he never does or says anything interesting, charming, sweet, selfless, funny, quirky. All he does is throw tantrums. Kids like this are one of the things I go to the movies to get away from!

darren-153-890810 This is a brilliantly brave attempt to make a challenging and striking piece of art.On that level it works. The opening credits and first 10 minutes are intense. The Scott Walker soundtrack really pulls you in and immediately makes you think this is no ordinary film. And for that I loved it.The acting is absolutely superb. Not at any stage do you think they are actors. The boy, the mum and the tutor are the stand outs.The cinematography is superb, particularly near the end with the camera circling a dome, beautifully simple. The overall look and feel reminded me of The Duke Of Burgundy (One of my fav films of recent)There's not a lot of love in this family, thats for sure. The film is rather dull and slow though. I did find myself snnozebusting.The ending made no sense either. It wasn't until I chatted to the guys in the cinema that we sort of worked it out.I really respect the director for making a film like this. Im looking forward to his next film. Lets just hope more interesting stuff happens.If you liked the Witch, you'll love this.