Walking Too Fast

A strong Czech drama. I was actually surprised that I hadn't heard much about the film before. Yes, it's from the time before the revolution, and it might be a bit off-putting that there are so many films like it, but it beautifully shows the paranoia of the era and what a person could get away with when in the "right" place. Excellent acting performances and a great psychological human drama. (05/12/2014)

After a long time (since Ševčík’s Normal the Düsseldorf Ripper), I didn’t have trouble forgetting I was watching a Czech film while watching a Czech film and didn’t have to be lenient in my rating. Ondřej Malý is brilliant in the role of that secret police asshole, you can feel the character boiling within him. As a whole, however, Chains felt a little disarrayed; there was something missing for a 100% experience, but great satisfaction nonetheless. (09/01/2011)

One would expect a 2.5-hour film to have enough space to satisfy the viewer with a solid and meaningful finale with the stories of all (or at least most) of the characters wrapped up. Alas. In this regard, Walking Too Fast failed in its entirety. That’s a great pity, especially considering the performances that Špaček's film has (the great Ondřej Malý, the woefully, egregiously underused Oldřich Kaiser and others). (26/04/2011)

A psychological game played out over a period of two and half hours, with peons muddling through in a political system that had no winners and was a cancer on the human soul. Walking Too Fast is built on an excellent script with detailed portrayal of the characters and their twisted encounters, the maximum focus of the actors, and precise direction that might be slow but hits the bull’s eye. Don’t mind the initial slow pace, the lack of famous actors and visual minimalism evoking a TV production – everything, including coldly portrayed housing estates and the monotonous music, which adds tension to dramatic psychological moments, has its place. But it is definitely not a pleasant, audience-friendly film. It’s a very sad film that the current teen generation, untouched by Czechoslovakia’s past, will find hard to believe. (12/01/2010)

Right from the opening minutes (accompanied by the excellently chosen WWW), the viewer is struck by the raw atmosphere, which gives the impression that Walking Too Fast will definitely not be "just another Czech film", but that it intends to forge its own path (whether it will "arrest" or turn loose a larger number of viewers remains a question). Well chosen and photographed industrial sets, an imaginative combination of sound and visuals, and Ondřej Malý's performance – this is basically the best that Walking Too Fast has to offer, and it must be noted that compared to 95% of other Czech productions, it really is a diametric difference. The character of Antonín Rusnák typifies (at least at the beginning) the exemplary and fear-inducing STB agent, who then, due to stereotyping and loss of conviction, goes a little crazy and becomes even more dangerous to those around him. Even though the film is not perfect and has a few weak spots at times, I can't go below 90%, because it is really well made and acted by Czech standards (the convincing performances of the other underexposed actors are also pleasing). I'd be really surprised if Walking Too Fast gets surpassed by some other Czech film in 2010, but who knows. I'd like to believe that better times are on the horizon. :)) (08/03/2010)