‘WILL’ (2024) Netflix Movie Review - A Slick Machine With Little Juice In Its Body

Wil (Stef Aerts) is a painter, and every frame in this Tim Mielants film wants to be a painting. In fact, the director might have made this movie for composing beautiful images. That's the only thing he manages to achieve successfully. Will (or is it Wil?) looks pretty, but beyond that, it gives you nothing (Robrecht Heyvaert is the cinematographer). The camera moves elegantly. During the climax, it runs nervously. This slick machine, however, has so little juice in its body it leaves you drowsy. The movie is based on a 329-page book by Jeroen Olyslaegers. Yet, while watching it, I felt as if a short story had been stretched into a novel.

Remember Wil? Well, he's not just a painter. He is also a police officer in a Nazi-occupied city (Antwerp). During the opening scenes, he kills a Feldgendarm (Pit Bukowski) for assaulting a woman and her child. His friend and colleague, Lode (Matteo Simoni), is present during this scene, and the two of them decide to keep the incident a secret from everybody. Lode, though, tells his family everything, and they all invite Wil to their house to threaten him about the consequences that will follow if Lode's name is revealed. The movie is tense during these opening moments. Unfortunately, it soon becomes uninteresting.

Things sort of just happen in Will. I was shocked when Wil and Yvette (Annelore Crollet) started dating. Where is this attraction coming from? Also, what holds Wil and Lode's friendship? None of these relationships ever feel convincing. You are just meant to accept these situations, these developments passively. The shaky camera during a dance scene gives you a headache, though it's meant to be exciting. It's here where Wil encounters another officer who challenges him to drink. The former, in front of other officers, makes such guilty faces that you wonder why the bad guys (all generic) don't instantly catch him. This club scene is dumb as it lazily moves the story forward by intoxicating Wil. Once he gets drunk and angry, he reveals the location of the dead body. It's all quite unimpressive.

The decorative surface only accentuates how empty the film is. The "art house" aesthetic grasps so needily for greatness that the strain becomes apparent. The images don't illuminate the characters strikingly. They are seen as shiny puppets and fail to spark our curiosity. Will, overall, feels pointless. We all know Nazis were cruel, and the movie doesn't add anything new to this point. You cannot even take this film as some sort of commentary on the issues present in our contemporary society, as it's rigidly confined to its story and its setting. Will is dull, ostentatious, and uninspiring.

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times