Gooische Women (2011)

Directed by: Will Koopman | 105 minutes | drama, comedy | Actors: Linda de Mol, Peter Paul Muller, Leopold Witte, Koen Wauters, Tjitske Reidinga, Susan Visser, Alex Klaasen, Lies Visschedijk, Marcel Musters, Daniel Boissevain, Derek de Lint

Will Koopman, director of ‘Gooische Vrouwen’, believes that you can tell a lot more in a feature film than in a television series. You can deepen characters and develop storylines more strongly. Everything is possible.

With a classical montage, surrounded by funky soul music, ‘Gooische Vrouwen’ reveals the lives of four wealthy women from Het Gooi. Even if you have never seen the series, Cheryl, Claire, Anouk, and Roelien (or Linda, Tjitske, Susan and Lies) will soon have no more secrets for you. Thanks to the bearable everydayness of their worries. Roelien’s biggest problem is the threatening felling of a monumental tree, in addition to her husband’s disinterest. He gives his rock-solid boat shoe girl some encouraging taps on the cheek in the morning, and then dissolves into his work. Anouk is a divorced artist and gives painting lessons – she herself lacks all inspiration. In the process, Anouk is looking for a way to satisfy her lust as a single mother without offending her grumpy daughter. Claire was born to be a grandmother. A somewhat fragile basis for her zest for life, which implodes when her daughter simply announces that she and her family are emigrating to Burkina Faso. To do something with wells. She doesn’t like her husband Dirk – his passion focuses on deep-fried snacks. The only guy who visibly leads a life of his own in the Gooische is Martin Morero: a folk singer with an Amsterdam accent, thick as pudding. He is preparing for a series of concerts in the Amsterdam Arena, hindered by his libido and the slow development of his son Remy-Martin. He’s married to Cheryl. And Cheryl, well, what does she actually do? Relegating her poor son to an afterthought because she wants to go to Anouk’s vernissage-with-bubbles?

As a film, ‘Gooische Vrouwen’ also seems to be an ode to materialism. Sons have a mini-Mercedes, bags are worth a waiting list, couches are so expensive that they are not worth a meter, and you make love with Burberry suits or silicone. Of course you can gloat over the outfits of androgynous fashion fetishist Yari (Alex Klaassen). As a dalmatian he shows off well, but he steals the show with his ‘baguette bag’. The promise and only ‘innovation’ of ‘Gooische Vrouwen’ (the movie) is that we will see the four girlfriends in fashionable Paris. Nice to France – exhausting breast enlargements, marred wedding ceremonial, teenage daughters exploding and stressed husbands having their blow job in a doll corner. In other words: no more Gucci bags on that well-worn PC, but on Rue de Rivoli and Champs-Elysées. Just sit back and relax: that promise is being fulfilled. What satisfying archetype can be found in the image of that group of exuberant gold card women carrying a load of high-gloss bags along a sunny avenue?

‘Gooische Vrouwen’ is like a photo album full of good memories. Static. All kinds of things happen, and there is plenty to laugh about: Martin Morero in his newsprint suit, his meddling mother-man (Beppie Melissen), fishmonger Dirk who goes to his knees with a mouthful of tapenade, Roelien’s lonely eco-struggle and urge to help, even the verbal stumbling by Jeroen van Koningsbrugge works. Quasi-artist Anouk (Susan Visser) can rightly be called warm-blooded and sexy – she is an exception. But inside the characters stand still. They are moving images, in a different sense than usual. Defenseless victims of abundance, navel-gazing and Gooische blinders. You would feel sorry for them.

‘Gooische Vrouwen’ comes across as an entertaining but lengthy introduction to a very short story. Where a five-minute episode starts the story, ‘Gooische Vrouwen’ takes almost an hour and a half to drive four women and a stylist into an imaginatively painted VW van. On their way to the château of reflection of white swan Loes Luca, who – in impossible poses – shows them the way to themselves. Without success, because even as a viewer you wonder what the hell they are doing there after three minutes. As a diversion, as a solid, light-hearted feel-good comedy and ‘feast of recognition’, there is reason to watch the film on a huge screen. But stronger storylines, deepened characters? What isn’t there… A visit to the constantly bewildered psychologist Derek de Lint doesn’t change that either.