Murder Wives (2007)

Directed by: Dick Maas | 100 minutes | comedy | Actors: Bracha van Doesburgh, Pierre Bokma, Jennifer de Jong, Bart Oomen, Hadewych Minis, Bart Klever, Plien van Bennekom, Kees Boot, Dorien Rose, Hans Kesting, Sanne Wallis de Vries

A pink Hummer, huge amounts of cocktails and champagne, fashion for funerals and above all a lot of Botox, that is more or less the summary of Dick Maas’ first Dutch film in ten years. ‘Moordwijven’ revolves around three millionaire women who in their spare time – and when do they not have one – prefer to visit a plastic surgeon or otherwise go shopping on the PC Hooftstraat. They prefer to do everything together, for example to parties – with matching outfits – or to the plastic surgeon. When Kitty (Bracha van Doesburg) suspects that her husband is cheating, the three decide to look for a hit man who wants to kill her husband.

In addition to Bracha van Doesburgh, Hadewych Minis and Sanne Wallis de Vries play the leading roles. With their ridiculous behavior and disfigured clothes, they manage to portray the lives of millionaire women in a funny way. Sanne Wallis de Vries is not doing badly in her first major film role. Although you continue to associate her face with the characters she played in programs such as Tacks, she convinces in the role of the alcoholic Nicolette. There are few women in the Netherlands who can play the role of a drunk woman as amusingly as she can. A nice joke in the film is the return of famous actors from ‘Flodder’. Bert André, who played neighbor Neuteboom in ‘Flodder’, can be seen briefly as an undertaker and Lou Landré – better known as Sjakie – can be seen as the archivist of Kitty’s husband’s music company.

Still, that’s not enough to hold the attention. The story of ‘Moordwijven’ is not much. This should not be a shortcoming if you as a viewer are maintained in a different way (humor or action). Unfortunately this happens too little. The many dialogues in the beginning of the film take the momentum out of the story and it never comes back. Even the spectacular ending (as befits a Dick Maas film) does not compensate for this. It must be concluded that ‘Moordwijven’ is disappointing despite a number of funny finds and that is a shame for the first Dutch film by Maas in years.