ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

bjarias We learn about them and are slowly drawn into caring about these individuals.. for that alone it's a terrific little film. It just has so many wonderful scenes, and there are several fine performances, coming from actors you in all probability have never seen or heard of before. Barbara Sarafian.. bit.ly/16qn7oL .. is of special note... she is from start to finish superb. Read a great line about her performance in the film.. "Sarafian is acting every second she's on screen, yet you never catch her at it." As for the two lead characters.. do they 'make it' and ultimately stay together.. who knows, but they have given us allot of enjoyment just in meeting up. Watch it.. you will enjoy it.

jotix100 As Matty is backing her car out of her parking spot of a supermarket, she hears the ominous sign of a collision. A big truck driven by Johnny, has come in her way, damaging her trunk's door. No serious damage was inflicted on the truck. Matty, furiously maintains Johnny is the culprit by hitting her, he, on the other hand, feels it is her fault by not looking where she was going. The two start a shouting match that clearly does not go anywhere until the police arrive to seize the situation. Johnny, evidently, is well known to the cops.To her complete surprise, Matty watches the following morning the arrival of Johnny from her balcony. He has come armed with tools to repair the damage. She is furious, Matty did not expect this, nor did she call him. Johnny fixes the damage so it can close properly. Matty is somewhat flattered about Johnny's good intentions for making good out of their terrible ordeal. Matty offers lunch to Johnny. Matty has three children. Vera, a teen ager, Fien, a girl of about twelve, and Peter, who is the younger. Matty is separated from Werner, her husband, a music teacher who left her for a younger woman. Werner and Matty have remained in somewhat civil terms. She works at a post office branch, a boring job which helps her support her family, since there is no indication Werner contributes much to his children. The arrival of Johnny proves to be a godsend for Matty, who suddenly sees in Johnny a man that shows some interest in her, even though she is about ten years older than him. Johnny, who travels to Italy quite often, loves romance. Finding a kind soul in Matty, he falls deeply for her. Matty, who is at first reluctant to give in, is charmed by the good natured Johnny. What Matty does not know is the fact that Johnny had problems with the law because his heavy drinking and fighting, something he declares he has left behind. Now sober, he realizes this is the opportunity to get on with his life. Matty has other problems to deal with, but she too has fallen in love with the man.A romantic comedy from Belgium was a surprise when it turned up on a cable channel recently. Directed by Christophe Van Rompaey, the film rings true because one can identify with the people in the story. Matty is an earthy no-nonsense woman who has been abandoned by a man that did not deserve her. She accept her daughter Vera's coming out as a lesbian without hysterics. The arrival of Johnny into her boring life awakens her from her resignation to go it alone. Johnny is charmed by a woman who can tell him off without getting upset about it. The film works because of the wonderful performances of the two principals. Barbara Sarafian is a welcome presence in any film she graces with her presence. She is reluctant to acknowledge the happiness that falls into her lap, Jurgen Delnaet matches his co-star in surprising ways. Both make their characters credible.

isabelle1955 I loved this movie! It's amusing, touching, warm, sweet and salty and an exercise in great acting. Funny, but this the second movie I've watched recently that's set in Belgium (the other was 'In Bruges'). The nation must be striving to throw off its dull image and present a new face to the world. Moscow Belgium certainly overturns the concept that dysfunctional families are confined to North America. Here we have Eurodisfunction. Moscow (strictly Moscou) is the name of the suburb the protagonists inhabit, which as far as I can see is between Gent and the North Sea coast. It is glimpsed very briefly on the destination board on the front of a bus. This seemed to cause confusion amongst our audience and I overheard several muttered conversations as I left the theatre as to what on earth Russia had to do with it? So possibly the movie name has lost something in translation? It translates better as Collision in Moscou. Barbara Sarafian plays Matty, a rather dowdy, phlegmatic, forty-something mother of three whose art teacher husband Werner has left her for one of his students some five and a half months before. She works in a post office, takes care of the kids and – when we meet her first – is trudging half heartedly around the local megastore buying groceries. Matty is more dead than alive. Exiting the car park, she reverses into the truck of Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet) a red haired, alcoholic but quite cute truck driver some ten years her junior, and a sharp exchange of views ensues about fault and blame, which ends abruptly with the arrival of the traffic police, called by Matty. It seems Johnny has a record. The next day he turns up at her apartment to fix her damaged trunk and he asks her out for a drink. Johnny is intrigued by Matty, but she is less than enamoured of him. All she wants – she thinks – is her old life back; her husband home, her kids behaving and everything ordered and where it should be. Her coworker at the post office has assured her that sexual passion only lasts six months, so Werner will be back soon. But Johnny is persistent and Werner is flaky. Whereas Werner's new girlfriend phones him at awkward times, interrupting all his attempts to converse with his wife, Johnny is amusing and unequivocal about his desire to get Matty into his bed – or at least into the cab of his truck where he has a bunk. Matty can't quite believe she's doing this but is torn between the quiet life of a known but cheating husband and the roller coaster ride of a relationship with marginally criminal but laddishly attractive Johnny.Then she discovers that Johnny put his ex wife in hospital and all bets are off. Can someone who has done prison time for hitting his last woman be trusted to have changed? Even if he does bond with her son at an air show and bring her Italian designer shoes from his road trips and make her feel sexier than she's felt in years. Lurking in the background of all of this domestic drama are Matty and Werner's three bright children, nerdy Peter who is into airplanes, Fien who tells everyone's fortune with a deck of tarot cards and old-for-her-years Vera, who at sixteen watches and learns from the complicated mess the supposed adults are making of their sex lives. The intimate and often dull details of domestic life are lovingly filmed; Matty's obsession for feeding them blood sausage to build up pale Peter's health, the hours spent watching her laundry tumble around at the laundromat, Johnny sitting obediently at the dinner table like a slightly older version of her kids while she serves up family dinner. In one delicious scene, Johnny, Werner, Matty, the kids – everyone – share a meal while sniping at each other politely over the dinner plates and then in the midst of this domestic bliss, Vera introduces her girlfriend. She's decided life will be simpler if she is gay. Vera is played by Anemone Valcke who is both absolutely gorgeous and a very good young actress and I expect to see much, much more of her in future. The script is perfect, the dialogue real – even in subtitles – and the direction quite understated. There are subtle under tones of a fading European class system at work here too, with teacher Werner obviously thinking Johnny – as a mere truck driver whose father was a railway worker – is intellectually his inferior. You get the feeling that Werner thinks his wife is a bit déclassé too, but of course he can hardly complain about her sleeping with Johnny when he is now bedding a student. I always think a 'foreign language' movie works really well when the acting is so good that you are barely aware that you are reading subtitles. There is no attempt to overstate the humour and force feed it to the audience, rather we absorb the irony and drama of the situation while Matty weighs up the potential fun and excitement of a new life with slightly dodgy but adoring Johnny against the known status quo of getting back together with pretentious Werner. Great movie of human foibles and middle aged love. Go see.

Kenneth The movie sets place in Moscow, a small Belgian town district of Ghent. Matty and Johnny, 2 very common people, collide and the movie starts. From that point on a romantic story starts with a lot of humor and hilarious scenes with genius dialogs which are rare in Belgian movies these days.This movie separates itself from all other Belgian movies by placing the characters up front and their story. That makes the movie so realistic and gives it a personal touch to the audience so they can relate with them. Also the typical dialect of the population in Ghent gives another aspect to this movie. Whereas most Belgian movies are situated in Antwerp this movie takes viewers to another location and another atmosphere which is a welcome relieve for a lot of viewers. I'm giving it 9 out of 10 stars!