False (2019)

Directed by: Dennis Bots | 92 minutes | thriller | Actors: Romy Gevers, Niek Roozen, Holly Mae Brood, Thijs Boermans, Abbey Hoes, Shahine El Hamus, Olivia Lonsdale, Gijs Blom

Mel Wallis de Vries is extremely popular among young people. The children’s fiction writer once admitted that she always bases the characters in her books on people from her own high school days, although of course she gives them a different name. Mel’s books are labeled as ‘youth thrillers’ and that makes them quite unique, because there are not so many other writers who focus specifically on this genre. The style is just as powerful, smooth and straightforward as the titles of the books suggest: ‘Error’ (2008), ‘Waanzin; (2009), ‘Klem’ (2012), ‘Cruel’ (2013), ‘Shock’ (2014) and ‘Guilt’ (2015) are some examples. She has already won the Young Jury Prize seven times. Her best-known work is ‘Vals’, a book she wrote in 2010 and which six years later became the first of her thrillers to hit theaters in the form of a musical. And because the target group – teenagers from the age of fourteen – also likes to go to the cinema, a film version of ‘Vals’ was released in January 2019. The direction is in the hands of Dennis Bots, the man behind the series and films about ‘Het Huis Anubis’ and book adaptations such as ‘Eighth groupers do not cry’ (2012) and ‘War secrets’ (2014) and the screenplay was written by Alexandra Penrhyn Lowe , with whom Bots has collaborated on some of the ‘Anubis’ movies.

Shortly before the final exams, four friends go to the Ardennes together for a weekend. Kim (Romy Gevers) and Abby (Abbey Hoes) have been best friends for years, although the friendship has become less intense now that Abby has met the cheeky Pippa (Olivia Lonsdale) and has also invited her on their trip to Belgium. Feline (Holly Mae Brood) is a bit further away from the threesome and has her own troubles, as will become clear later. The unpredictable Pippa has been given her parents’ four-wheel drive for a weekend of drinking and partying in a remote country house; she drives like a chicken without a head and almost hits three Dutch boys (Thijs Boermans, Shahine El Hamus and Niek Roozen) who have settled in a nearby house near their final destination. To make up for it, she invites the boys to join them that evening (without discussing this with the other girls, by the way). It doesn’t take long before we discover that all the girls are walking around with a secret, and what should have been a night of partying turns out to be very annoying to say the least. Kim gets locked in, Abby – who has a boyfriend (Gijs Blom) at home – kisses one of the guests and Pippa secretly takes pictures of it. And then it starts snowing really hard. Things get completely out of hand when Feline disappears without a trace and the other three girls find Pippa’s dog dead behind the garden shed…

Those who watch thrillers more often will recognize many red herrings and familiar tricks: the scary man who suddenly shows up at an abandoned gas pump, a terrifying silhouette can be seen behind a window, one of the girls is claustrophobic, another behaves rather strangely. We have also often seen the fact that the girls get snowed in and (partly because of this) have completely lost contact with the outside world (because: no mobile coverage). Therefore, ‘Vals’ cannot be called original. And credibility is also hard to find. That there is friction between the girls – at least between Kim, Abby and Pippa, because Feline is only slightly involved – is obvious, but could have been worked out better. Kim is jealous that she now has to share Abby with Pippa, who in turn manipulates like crazy because she knows that her friendship with Abby will never be as close as the one between Kim and Abby. Familiar youth themes such as bullying, jealousy, boyfriends, sexuality and insecurity are all discussed. It is thanks to the talented cast that we are drawn into the story. In particular, Olivia Lonsdale (‘Prince’, 2015), by far the most intriguing of the whole bunch, seizes the opportunity to give her not too highly developed character something of her own.

Clichés, little originality and unbelievable – it can all be said about ‘Vals’. The movie has a different ending than the book, which might take some getting used to (or even startle) for fans of the bestseller. It is not clear exactly why this choice was made, but this ending does not turn out too well. The idea behind it is intriguing, but the execution totally unbelievable. Besides, things are explained way too much. Perhaps because the target group is still young, but they also do not like to be underestimated. ‘Vals’ is an entertaining thriller that lacks a lot, but which, thanks to a nice atmosphere and smooth, talented protagonists, still remains somewhat on their feet.