Movie Thoughts: Cool Kids Don't Cry (2012)

• Released: February 15, 2012
  
• Directed by: Dennis Bots
  
• Running time: 1h 36min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

A girl named Akkie loves soccer and is always at odds with her rival, a boy from her class named Joep. But when Akkie falls ill with leukemia, her world turns upside down.

My Thoughts

I have seen this one once, maybe twice before, mostly at school. If you're not familiar with it, this movie (and the book it's based on) is pretty influential among Dutch kids. The movie is often shown at schools and the book is often read there. At least it was back when I was in primary school.

So despite knowing where the story was going, having read the book and seen the movie before, this re-watch had a bigger impact on me than any I've done before. I don't know what it is but the movie just grabbed me. The characters are intricate, the writing is great, the plot engaging and it just really hit me emotionally.

Spoiler alert for those not familiar with the story: Akkie does die. But even knowing that going into the mofvie in no way lessened the impact of this re-watch for me. There's just some really good stuff in this movie and I wish I could appreciate it like this before. Yeah, it actually made me emotional, something that rarely happens for me when watching a movie.

So yeah, not much else to say here. Great movie, very emotional, great characters, and it feels very realistic and just hits so hard.