Based on Mads Larsen's novel, "Pornopung" is a film which depicts the young men's insecurities and troubles in their interactions with women in the college society. I'm not going to claim how many films there's been made of this subject, but I applaud the choice of having a film who depicts the man's point of views and their insecurities on their fragile journey to become a ladies man. Unfortunately, the execution is disappointingly weak and insipid.
The script is pretty much a predictable, "fish out of water"-premise where a good, innocent protagonist joins the cool, bad club. But this time with a quite sexual, intimate and provocative premise. While the films definitively tries to be comedic about the theme, it's not executed with neither class or subtlety. It manages to portray the awkwardness of the themes, but not in a compelling or engaging way. Besides, the quick cutting, exaggerated slow motion scenes and dizzying, loud party-music which dominates most of the time, makes the film way more awkward and blatant than it needs to be.
The second problem lies within the characterizations, the actors and the choice of the lead. None of the characters are compelling, interesting or likable and none of the actors manage to contribute to make their characters shine. The only one who has a on-screen charisma is Anders Rydning as Leo, but he's reduced to Karl's sidekicks and rarely gets to really shine. As the main lead, Ole Christoffer Ertvaag manages to portray Christian as shy, socially awkward and the opposite of a ladies man, but lacks the charisma and likability to makes us care and root for him. It would have been better to have an lead with a more likability.
The third problem lies in Christian's motivation. He's crushing on a girl and is pushed by Karl to become more active with women. But he finally gives in when Karl sleeps with his love interest and doesn't confront Karl about it until the very end. It makes very little sense! Logically this would have made Christian to hate Karl and not less motivated to pursue his goal.
On the positive side, "Pornopung" doesn't shy away from the darker, serious side of Christian's journey and portrays it superiorly than it does with it's lighter side. Unfortunately those sides are reduced to the climax, which leads up to the resolution, where Christian faces what he's done and makes up for it. It's superiorly done, but it is overall rushed. Besides, the film deals with the dilemma which several men faces to attract women. Which is attracting them as a Casanova vs being themselves (their shy, socially awkward self). The film barely taps into the issue at the beginning, but leaves it afterwards and never concludes it. Unforutnately.
So all in all, while "Pornopung" is not horrible, it's still a film about a sensitive theme which could have been executed superiorly.
The script is pretty much a predictable, "fish out of water"-premise where a good, innocent protagonist joins the cool, bad club. But this time with a quite sexual, intimate and provocative premise. While the films definitively tries to be comedic about the theme, it's not executed with neither class or subtlety. It manages to portray the awkwardness of the themes, but not in a compelling or engaging way. Besides, the quick cutting, exaggerated slow motion scenes and dizzying, loud party-music which dominates most of the time, makes the film way more awkward and blatant than it needs to be.
The second problem lies within the characterizations, the actors and the choice of the lead. None of the characters are compelling, interesting or likable and none of the actors manage to contribute to make their characters shine. The only one who has a on-screen charisma is Anders Rydning as Leo, but he's reduced to Karl's sidekicks and rarely gets to really shine. As the main lead, Ole Christoffer Ertvaag manages to portray Christian as shy, socially awkward and the opposite of a ladies man, but lacks the charisma and likability to makes us care and root for him. It would have been better to have an lead with a more likability.
The third problem lies in Christian's motivation. He's crushing on a girl and is pushed by Karl to become more active with women. But he finally gives in when Karl sleeps with his love interest and doesn't confront Karl about it until the very end. It makes very little sense! Logically this would have made Christian to hate Karl and not less motivated to pursue his goal.
On the positive side, "Pornopung" doesn't shy away from the darker, serious side of Christian's journey and portrays it superiorly than it does with it's lighter side. Unfortunately those sides are reduced to the climax, which leads up to the resolution, where Christian faces what he's done and makes up for it. It's superiorly done, but it is overall rushed. Besides, the film deals with the dilemma which several men faces to attract women. Which is attracting them as a Casanova vs being themselves (their shy, socially awkward self). The film barely taps into the issue at the beginning, but leaves it afterwards and never concludes it. Unforutnately.
So all in all, while "Pornopung" is not horrible, it's still a film about a sensitive theme which could have been executed superiorly.
