Swooni (2011)

Directed by: Kaat Beels | 90 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Natali Broods, Enrique de Roeck, Sara de Roo, Viviane de Muynck, Alexander Provoost, Isaka Sawadogo, Vigny Tchakouani, Geert van Rampelberg, Tibo Vandenborre

The Flemish drama film ‘Swooni’ takes us to a luxurious hotel in the heart of Brussels. It is here in this hotel where the storylines of many different people converge. All the main characters have settled in this hotel for different reasons. Vicky (Natali Broods) works here as a chambermaid. Her mother Violette (Viviane de Muynck) has not had contact with her daughter for ages and tries to restore this contact by means of an unexpected visit. The (not exactly happily) married couple Anna (Sara de Roo) and Hendrik (Geert van Rampelberg) came to this place for their niece’s wedding, while Guillaume (Tibo Vandenborre) followed them to this hotel because of his obsession for the same Anna. is. And finally, there is Joyeux (Vigny Thakouani), an asylum seeker on the run, less than ten years old, who hopes to find his father, who he lost on his way to Belgium, in this hotel.

It was undoubtedly the intention of director Kaat Beels (for whom ‘Swooni’ means her debut film after a number of previous short films and series) to bring these different storylines together in a beautiful way. However, she hardly succeeded in doing so. The many different stories run parallel to each other and this gives you the feeling that you are watching multiple films within the same film. To put it simply, you can say that there are two main stories: first of all that of Joyeux, who hopes to find his father in the hotel and finds support from Vicky, who is happy to take care of the boy. The second storyline is that of Anna and Hendrik and their failing marriage that comes to an ultimate climax in the hotel. But there are no real overlaps between the different stories and ‘Swooni’ feels more like watching a soap opera.

What also does not work in the film’s favor is that the characters of the main characters are all not sympathetic. Everyone seems to have something bad in them; for example, Anna cheats on Guillaume, Violette was never there for her daughter when she needed her and she certainly comes across as quite antisocial in the beginning. But Vicky herself is also quite selfish and as the film progresses, Hendrik also appears to have his annoying qualities. This really only leaves Joyeux to sympathize with, because he is the only one who is genuinely innocent and does not cheat. None of the other actors manage to create a real bond with his or her character and each character seems to make some unfortunate choices towards the end of the film which only reinforces this feeling.

Still, ‘Swooni’, despite the aforementioned shortcomings, is still worth a look. The film manages to show just enough drama on screen to hold the attention. The fact that the entire film takes place in one and the same hotel (except for a few flashbacks about Joyeux’s past) is an interesting choice. It’s just a shame that the undoubtedly good intentions of the makers to make ‘Swooni’ a really captivating drama do not succeed.