Hotel Swooni (2011) User Reviews (4)

Decent, but not exciting

[rubenm · 6/10 · 27 August 2011]

A film about what's going on during an ordinary day in a big city hotel. The problems of the management, the peculiarities of the guests, the routine of the staff. There's a marriage going on in the hotel, and someone is having an affair. Then, a dramatic event happens that changes everything.

Sounds familiar? Yes, it's the plot outline of 'Bobby', the movie about what was going on in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the day Robert Kennedy was killed. But also of Swooni, the first feature film by Belgian director Kaat Beels.

There are quite a few similarities between the two movies. Swooni focuses on six persons who see their lives changed during one day in a Brussels hotel. There's a mother and her daughter, a man and his wife, as well as her lover. And then there's Joyeux, a small kid who's fled an African country with his father, but lost him during the trip and hopes to meet up with him in the hotel. The dramatic event in the end is about him.

Beels knows how to make her characters interesting. We feel the doubt of the woman who has to choose between her sweet but somewhat boring husband and her romantic but superficial lover. And we understand the feelings of the lesbian chambermaid who suddenly sees the opportunity to become a mother, but has to abandon this plan when the circumstances change.

The film is interesting enough, but could use some more sharp edges. It's a made-by-the-book movie, but it could use an unexpected twist or weird character. It's decent, like Anna's husband, but not exciting, like her lover. But then again, in the end she chooses decency.

Love and Trust

[pembekeci · 7/10 · 5 April 2023]

The movie has a script made up of intertwined stories. In one of the stories, the audience may have a chance to observe the behavior of a character who has a corrupted mindset and knows no bounds in selfishness. You can almost feel real physical pain as you watch this character plot to betray the person who loves and trusts this narcicist and tell cold-blooded lies to execute the plan right under the nose of that loving and trusting person.

Does the movie mean to say that loving someone isn't enough to stop them from betraying you? Does it even mean to say that if you love so much, you will suffer in the most disrespectful and reckless way? Maybe it is. The more you love and trust, the more painful the betrayal will be. In my opinion, the movie made me to figure that out this way. And if you love and trust so much, you will be betrayed so cruelly and so recklessly in the middle of the day and just a few steps away.

Your trust in the person you love possibly may turn into a cover for that selfish person to fool you in the most possible cruel ways. These kind of persons take advantage of this and could make you even feel guilty and apologize for your weak trust.

From the beginning to the end, the movie leaves the audience alone with each story. The film is not overly concerned about conveying a message. However, towards the end, you encounter a message that the betrayal of a loved and trusted one should be insignificant next to a greater pain. What? So, should we tolerate a betrayal because of the possibility of experiencing a greater pain? It sounds like the rhetoric of a right-wing politician. We must turn a blind eye to small disasters for a greater possible disaster! No! The main thing to do is to remove such arrogant, rude, disrespectful people from your life. It must be an irony of the movie that people who do not care about the feelings of others and take care of their own pleasure resemble countries that exploit Africa.

But of course, the common problem of those who fall in love with these selfish and narcissistic personalities is that they are "addicted" to these tormenting people. These victims engage in such a psychology with their manipulative methods. Holding hands, comforting, sudden very intense gestures, long emotional hugs, sayings of love, etc. In the end, they cannot do without them. You can see a good example of this at the end of the movie when the victim turns back to the torturer. Thus, the victim becomes a satellite of this self-centered insatiability by feeding it.

Absolutely worth to watch. 7 out of 10.

Pure trash

[siqueirafamilyhrvatska · 1/10 · 27 May 2022]

I don't really appreciate any kind of movie moving away from real world. The hotel is pure "luxury" but the housekeeper manages to feed, bathe and put the kid to sleep in one of the rooms 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂. She roams the hotel with the kid without be bothered 😂😂👏👏👏👏👏. 1 star in too many.

Superb Ensemble Gem

[silvio-mitsubishi · 8/10 · 21 January 2023]

Interwoven storylines can clash, with minor tales seeming only a respite from the main thread, but Swooni is a fully-formed, multi character ensemble piece with very little spare. One day in the lives of a migrant parent and child, a couple and their teenage son (the only underdeveloped character), and a hotel employee and her mother, their paths crossing in an upmarket Brussels hotel, told in Dutch and French.

There are no punches pulled, as characters reveal personal flaws and make damaging mistakes. Secrets are exposed, relationships stripped back to reveal the faults. All seems to happen almost in real time, with the gaps being natural and understandable - we don't need to see an adult/child relationship change over two hours with a jigsaw; only the cold beginning and warm fulfilment.

There is even a natural feel to the switches, as one person passes another in a corridor, or stands outside the room of another, distracted by sounds from within. The plot flows organically and we are carried with it, genuinely caring what happens and how it will end.

The tiny details on which life hinges - whether someone leaves mid-argument or stays to ride it out, whether a couple face their difficulties or try to deny them - are well explored. Even the cynical can be caught by this, and the sentimental will be utterly captivated. Highly commended.