JOHAN

A foreign film delight
I'm a lover of foreign films anyway and this one was not a disappointment in any shape, form, or fashion.

It was a vehicle for an established Dutch pop star who has gone on to better things.
Don't get me wrong, I love Michiel Huisman. who later on in his career has done some really wonderful work particularly in the HBO series Treme. This one was simply a riff to get him some screen time in Holland when he was very young. He didn't do that bad a job but the movie is silly. If you LOVE Michiel then you will like it more.

3.5 stars... No, not the male version of "Bend It Like Beckham"
I was shopping for a movie in the foreign movie section at my local library the other day, and noticed this movie, which I immediately picked up, for one since it is a Dutch movie (I'm from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium).

"Johan" (97 min,; originally released in 2006 in the Netherlands) has an intruiging promise. Born as the 11th son in a soccer-crazy family (and hence 'completing' the team), it turns out that Johan actually hates soccer. Johan eventually quits the family soccer team, and tries to find his own way as a singer-songwriter (the actor playing Johan is an up-and-coming singer-songwriter in real life). Meanwhile Johan falls in love with a local girl, who (for reasons never made clear in the movie) eventually bags Johan for one of his brothers, a soccer-star in the making, and even marries him. You'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

This was a pleasant movie, nothing more, nothing less. There are tons of scenes and references in...

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