Toen ik je zag is a new drama directed and written by Ben Verbong, who has directed more German film in recent years. The film is also based on the book of the same name written by Isa Hoes, who based the book on a personal experience from her life.
The couple Bastiaan (Egbert Jan Weeber) and Esther (Noortje Herlaar) are both well-known actors from the 90s. In the eyes of the world and their fans, they seem to be leading a perfect life.
Behind the scenes, everything is less beautiful than it seems, because despite his success, Bastiaan suffers from a psychological depression, which is increasingly affecting his relationship with Esther and their children. Esther tries to keep Bastiaan and their family on track, but independently this takes more effort and energy than she had expected.
Ben Verbong tries to make a comeback as a Dutch director and scriptwriter with this film, but his last Dutch film work in which he performed these tasks was with the 1991 film The indecent woman. Unfortunately, the time between this transition falls back on this film. To see.
The story is not really clear thanks to the storytelling. In the beginning, the film shows how the film will approximately end. This can no longer be a secret for book readers or people who are familiar with the situation on which Isa Hoes has based her book. However, for people who are not familiar with this, the end of the film is given away so quickly as if they have only read the last pages of the book. As a result, the structure of the story loses some of its tension moments.
The film also focuses more on the consequences of the main character's depression, so that the cause sometimes seems a bit unclear. Due to the lack of the reasons for this cause, the main character is sometimes difficult to follow or understand. This makes the film difficult to follow at times, so it can sometimes come across as a bit long-winded. If there had been a better balance between the cause and effect of the depression, the film could have come across better. Furthermore, the film is unfortunately also filled with clichés from drama films where the depressed character is alone in the rain, for example.
Noortje Herlaar tries to carry the film as the caring partner and mother, but due to separate decisions from the story, her character sometimes comes across as a bit unrealistic. Esther and Bastiaan find out about Bastiaan's depression later in the film, but they don't really take solutions for this, because Bastiaan doesn't want this. You would expect more help and control from real lovers. In emotional scenes you can sometimes also see or hear that Noortje Herlaar is crying more actingly here, so that credibility can be lost somewhat.
Egbert Jan Weeber also tries to come across as someone who suffers from psychotic depression, but due to the lack of information about the cause of this depression, he is sometimes difficult to follow. When you learn a little more about the cause later in the film, it can come across as a bit weak as the real reason for his depression. After all, in addition to the depression, the main character simply has a good career history, is married with children and lives a nice life. For the reasons of his depression, you would expect that someone would be able to find the right way to avoid problems in his situations.
