The White Ribbon (2009)

IMDb plot summary: Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
Directed by Michael Haneke. Starring Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Leonie Benesch, and Ulrich Tukur.

Roughly an hour into this movie, I couldn't wait for it to be over. I found the multiple different families and relationships unnecessarily difficult to keep track of, and it didn't seem to be going anywhere. There are a handful of individual scenes that are nicely written, acted, and shot, but outside of the necessary context of the whole it didn't really work for me. The second hour picks up a little bit, at least to the point where I could understand what the film was trying to do. Its deliberately slow style does make sense if you're trying to really look at the roots and effects of evil in this small town. That being said, it is still, by and large, very boring. I can appreciate what people liked about it but I have zero interest in watching it again.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The White Ribbon < Boogie Nights
The White Ribbon > Napoleon
The White Ribbon > To Have and Have Not
The White Ribbon < Runaway Jury
The White Ribbon > How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
The White Ribbon < SpaceCamp
The White Ribbon > Dakota Skye
The White Ribbon > Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
The White Ribbon > The Core
The White Ribbon > The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The White Ribbon < Lovelace
Final spot: #1709 out of 2951.