The winner of this year's best foreign-language Oscar, "Antonia's Line" is an episodic, sketchy comedy-drama that reaches for the stars . . . but settles for the balcony.
"Antonia" is introduced in the first scene as a woman who has lived a long, full life and knows this is the day she will die. Not that she's sick, mind you. The narrator whimsically informs us that Antonia simply knows "when enough is enough."
The bulk of the film is revealed in flashback, beginning shortly after World War II as stocky, middle-aged Antonia (the lovely, warm and authoritative Willeke van Ammelrooy) returns home to a small Dutch farming community, along with her quiet daughter Daniell.
Antonia, an independent but nurturing widow, introduces her daughter to the local eccentrics she has known all her life, all of whom bear cutesy names like "Loony Lips," "Crooked Finger," "Retarded DeeDee," "Russian Olga," "The Protestant" and "Mad Madonna."
As Antonia renews relationships, she takes some of these people under her wing and does battle with others (chiefly a hypocritical priest and a nasty farm boy who rapes his own sister and later, Antonia's great-granddaughter).
Antonia also takes up with a local farmer, declining his offer of marriage; brings together Loony Lips and Retarded DeeDee; takes Daniell into the city so she can have a child without having to marry; later approves as Daniell takes a lesbian lover; watches her granddaughter Theresa grow up to be a math and music prodigy; and so it goes.
The years fly by as the film skips along from story to story, each character's anecdotes interwoven with Antonia's progeny. Some are more interesting than others and all seem underdeveloped. But the cast is excellent, and it tries hard to lend some depth to the proceedings.
Written and directed by Marleen Gorris, "Antonia's Line" is obviously a very personal film, with a feminist slant and a mystical, fantasy-laden sensibility. But the dialogue is clunky and the narrative shifts uncomfortably from melodrama to wackiness to tragedy to cheap farce, which makes for a rather bumpy ride.
There is also a political agenda, as the film is quite critical of religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular, as well as institutions at large. And at times Gorris allows herself a lecturing tone.
Still, she's never strident, and there are some wonderfully warm moments for a willing, forgiving audience.
"Antonia's Line" is rated R for violence, rape and sex, all rather graphic, as well as full nudity, occasional profanity and a few vulgar remarks.