Suzy Q

'Suzy Q' sure has some stuff going for it. Crazy and fun camera angles (lots of close-ups), colorful characters and a story of intimate family woes (plus a chance meeting with none other than Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful - at least, I'm assuming it's not a dream) in a big Dutch city. But in those very ingredients I missed a lot; the story is more like a clutter of little (unfinished) stories, the characters are rather one dimensional (though the acting is overall pretty good - the young Carice van Houten deserves a special mention) and often over the top in a bad way (the mother and her up beat behavior, the 'wise' guitar playing brother) and at some point I was wishing the director had tried a little less hard to make every next shot 'extra very special'. Very much a hit-and-miss type of film (a little too much of the latter, unfortunately), yet all in all still worth a watch. 5 out of 10.

Based on the childhood memories of Frouke Fokkema, who wrote the script together with director Martin Koolhoven, Suzy Q is about Suzy (Carice van Houten), a young girl coming of age in the 1960s. The title refers to The Rolling Stones' cover of the Dale Hawkins song "Susie Q" and the Stones -- most importantly Mick Jagger and his lover Marianne Faithfull -- figure into the plot, as Suzy finds her way into their hotel room and is kissed by Mick, a fact that no one wants to hear or believe. Her mother is lost, her father is abusive yet powerless and her brothers are trying to escape with either guitar or young lust. Suzy yearns for a time that she will escape these origins, but it won't happen just yet. But she will get away. This is a strong early film for Fokkema and Carice van Houten is incredible.

Director Martin Koolhoven graduated in 1996 from the Dutch Filmacademy and three years later he made one of his best films; Suzy Q. It's a story about Suzy (wonderfull acting of Carice van Houten) and her weird family. Her father is a dirty man who can't get his hands of Suzy, her brother Zwier is very depressed and her other Brother Palmer, doesn't want to hang out with Suzy. Suzy's mother is a little bit naive about this situation and she doesn't really know what to do about it. The whole story is situated in a weekend and after this weekend nothing is going to be the same. Director Martin Koolhoven has made with Suzy Q. one of the best Dutch films ever.

I saw this movie at a friend's house. She taped it and popped it in and poured coffee. First shot we see Suzy skipping home from school, she comes home to a (seemingly) normal family. We soon learn that her father has just lost his job thus losing his manhood (?), his mother is a little weird (Indian books, she seems to be a model), her brother is in love with a girl, but she is a rocker and he is a mud, that doesn't mix with the girl's (ex?) boyfriend and her other brother is lost in Jimi Hendrix' music and ways (read: smoking the funny stuff) The movie evolves into a portrait of a 'typical' family with its typical problems: The father abuses Suzy, she gets coldshouldered by her brothers, her mother just 'wants to have a good time'... One day she schemes herself into the room of Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, pretending to be a friend of Marianne's, she gets kissed by Mick and, well, this is a dream come true for her, but the people around her don't believe her or dón't care... The end of the movie is, well, a little disturbing, the big brother's rat gets killed, as an act of vengeance he makes soup of the his mother's turtle and serves this, and as they are eating tells them what it is, his mother is obviously disgusted as is Suzy, his bro thinks it tastes good as does his father, but he does punish him, after that mother and father take a stroll through the park like nothing happened. Suzy wants to escape the situation and we see her sharing a doobie with her brother. a sober movie set in the early sixties, sober is the way to describe this movie, sober and good...