This quirky Thai film has already won acclaim and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. The question is whether the shelves possibly focused on the film's stylistic appearance and perhaps did not really understand its rather hard-to-digest message. Because although the film is atmospheric, beautiful and contains a lot of interesting philosophy, it also becomes long-winded, pretentious and after a while boring.

Uncle Boonmee is dying of a serious kidney disease and is spending his last time with loved ones. At a quiet dinner with i.a. his disabled sister-in-law, both his deceased wife, in the form of a ghost, and his long-lost son, now a hairy monkey monster who lives in the forest, appear. They begin a trek through the jungle and Boonmee gets time to think about his current - And past - Life.

Of course, it sounds a little more than crazy, but the fact is that you swallow most of these unexpectedly dizzying whims and supernatural elements with hairs and holes as the film lurches along at such a pleasant, fine-tuned pace that you are drawn into the story and its fairy-tale atmosphere - At least for a while. Because after director Apichatpong Weerasethakul builds an imagination-tickling opening whose feel can be compared to a softer David Lynch reel with a more warm than unpleasant mood, the film loses energy the longer it goes on.

We get a taste of small, exciting stories and life destinies which, however, have abrupt ends or lack resolutions altogether. One longs in frustration for some kind of score or final clip that can provide an explanation for the film's surreal and, above all, strange scenes. Because it's a weird movie. It becomes clear that it is a foreign culture we are dealing with and even if a lot of philosophy and slightly humorous lines go home, there is a lot that goes completely over our heads. You want to understand but grope in the dark.

Oral sex with catfish, showering monks, mysterious caves and those Bigfoot-like monkeys with red, glowing eyes... These are awesome and beautiful scenes, but when they go on for ages without leading anywhere, you start sneaking a look at the clock. While I still appreciate films that take their time, I also appreciate that extended scenes have some kind of feeling to convey. Of course, it is certainly possible to analyze until the cultural skull cracks, but then you should probably be a little familiar with Thai culture. For the rest of us, it will be a beautiful, odd but rather boring film.

However, the craftsmanship is very impressive. Weerasethakul has a fantastic fingertip feel when it comes to the fairy-tale scenery and situations - One can sense a jealousy of Tim Burton who named the film one of the best of the year.