The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005)

I really don't understand how this movie won so many awards. It's below mediocre and when I'm saying this I'm considering the standards in romanian cinema, which are pretty low. I must say that I don't sympathize at all with Lazarescu, although the director almost forces this sympathy on the viewers, while accusing the medical system for... for what? From what I can tell everyone treated him fairly nice, given the context with that accident and the fact that he's just one among many others (and some of them with more urgent problems). And speaking about that accident... in the beginning of the movie, when Lazarescu is still at home, at tv the reporter mentions this accident telling there are 7 deaths and 29 injured. You know how much time passed since the reporter started this news until Lazarescu's neighbour turned off the tv? 20 seconds! People die every day all across the globe from a variety of reasons. Do we care? No we don't! So Lazarescu died... SO WHAT?!Leaving the ugly topic aside, the movie is made in a very amateurish way. Yes, I understand that realism plays a big part, but why don't make a documentary, label it as a documentary so it can be viewed by the people who are really interested in the topic, and save us 2 and a half hours of waiting for that guy to finally die? An over-rated movie who suffers of the same curse which seems to be the plague of romanian cinema... realism. At least if it was some kind of artsy realism or if it had an important message to transmit, but it doesn't.

Dull, demeaning, even if it is realistic. I can't believe this is marketed as a comedy, or reviewed as 'art', or even poetic and kafkaesque. I was actually given this DVD as a gift, and for the first time ever, I actually threw out a DVD. You can only find this funny if you have not been in that situation. If you have, it's tragic, and not in the least entertaining. As much as it is a reality that "we all have to bite the dust some time", dignity should be part of that ending of our lives. Watching a man die in agony, alone, was not an example of the inevitability of our mortality; I could not just shrug and press stop. An embarrassment to Romania, a disappointment to my friends and I, and a waste of time for anyone.

A near-three hour film about the lonely death of a cantankerous old drunk, and the failings of the Romanian health service, may not sound much like fun. But 'The Death of Mr. Lazarescu' has been called a black comedy, and, although that's pushing it (the comedy is really very dark indeed), superb naturalistic acting infuses this sad tale with a real emotional kick. Some of what we see bears resemblance to the themes of U.S. police show 'The Wire'; that a key part of the job of underfunded public servants is denying access to the service that is nominally being provided; and how those who work in such a system dehumanise themselves in order to survive. But thanks to the brilliant performances on offer here, we also see faint glimmers of surviving decency in almost all of even the superficially wost of those Mr. Lazarescu is unfortunate enough to encounter on his last journey. For those of us who live in richer countries than Romania, we may have reason to hope that our own ends are not quite so grim; but this is a universal story, powerfully told.

I just want to respond the first comment (or at least the comment marked as "most useful"), saying that this is not a movie about reality on a post-Comunist country. This is a movie about reality in countries that don't belong to the first Word. I come from Argentina, and my country has never been run as a communist country. Every president we had might have had politics different than other countries, but certainly, never even *near* communism. And that *happens*. It happens *every single day*. Do you know why I didn't enjoyed that movie? Because I couldn't stop thinking that at least half of the population in my country has no chance but to assist to public hospitals and suffer that luck *every day*. I'm lucky I belong to a middle class that can afford private hospitals, but as I see on the news, people go to hospitals at five in the morning to ask for an appointment with a doctor. And I see how doctors who work at public hospitals are frustrated when they can't help their patients because hospital doesn't have the appropriate equipment. It's really sad. It's not post-communism. It's reality at third word countries (and third word doesn't always mean we are from the African country where they are all starving, cause we are doing just fine. We're not that bad.) And the reason these countries have this issues is because, well, like you've seen our economy minister saying it on TV, the big boys are trying to keep us down.I do hope that The Death of Mr. Lazarescu has changed something in our head. It's not just a movie, It's almost a documentary... Because i can assure you that is a real story. Not a reality show, a real story.