Abel (1998)

Directed by: Ben Sombogaart | 110 minutes | adventure, family | Actors: Ricky van Gastel, Soraya Smith, Frits Lambrechts, Marisa van Eyle, Annet Malherbe, René van Asten, Chris Bolczek, Carine Crutzen, Michel van Dosselaere, Cas Enklaar, Lesly de Gruyter, Robert L. Hall, Kees Hulst, Philip van Lidth de Jeude, Herman Koch, Victor Löw, Afroditi Pieni Bijker, Ben Ramakers, Elleke Vervat, Hennie Vrienten

The book ‘Abeltje’ was published in 1953 by the actual Queen of the Netherlands, as Annie MG Schmidt was sometimes called. Nearly half a century later, the time had come for a movie version of the classic tale of an elevator boy who presses the forbidden green button, causing the elevator to shoot through the roof of the department store. The fact that the book is still in great demand among young people from the age of eight was apparently not sufficient proof that the story is timeless. The film had to be hip and cool, so with fast action scenes, pop songs (“Come fly with me” by Trijntje Oosterhuis was still a reasonable hit) and a modern twist on the story.

For example, in the book Laura is ‘just’ a girl next door to the title hero, in the film she is his girlfriend – although it already “breaks up” in one of the first scenes. Abeltje’s mother from 1953 was a florist, but apparently that profession is no longer of this time, so she now works in her own garage. Abeltje does not drop out of school because he has finished learning, but because mother dear takes him off. Abeltje himself has also undergone some external changes, he rides around on a skateboard and has a ring in his ear. Whether all those changes have resulted in a better film remains to be seen. Fans of the book may be disappointed, but you can’t please everyone. A number of changes are in any case positive, such as the fact that Abeltje looks like a detective for Johnny, the boy who looks exactly like him and who has been kidnapped by Indians. In the book it is actually by chance that Abeltje meets his image. By adding this sleuth element in the script, the tension increases considerably and ‘Abeltje’ has become a spectacular adventure film. However, due to this excess of tension, the film misses the mark, the plot is incoherent and it seems that the inhabitants of Perugona have also shot holes in this. At times the film is also dragging slow and boring.

The acting almost never excels, the characters remain flat and uninteresting. An exception to this is Annet Malherbe, who plays a double role and does it well. You have to look twice before you realize it’s the same actress. Frits Lambrechts, who portrays Mr Jozias Tump, mothball salesman, exactly as you would expect based on the book, is also striking in a positive sense. Because his mothballs in Perugona are mistaken for a variant of XTC, the story is also placed in the present. The whole Perugona part of the film is much too long-winded, especially the images of the revolution go on and on and are not really suitable for a family film. The scenes are quite intense, with guns and flying bullets. ‘Abeltje’ won a Golden Calf and was the first in a series of classic children’s books, which have been steadily hitting the cinema since the late 1990s. However, the film will not be able to knock its successors out of the first place, it is too much of an experiment for that. The director later proved that Ben Sombogaart and Annie MG Schmidt are the right combination with the TV series ‘Ibbeltje’ and ‘Pluk van de Petteflet’.