Čertí brko

The Magic Quill was filmed by the creators of Kancelář Blaník - and this fact is quite evident in the film. At least half of the plot consists of strongly accentuated political satire, which is fortunately quite general and it’s only up to you to what extent you relate it to the current Czech political situation. In addition, the film does not provide anything more significant and thus overshadows the rest of the fairy tale story, which is downright weak and clichéd - it is set in motion by the protagonist messing something up at the beginning (letting himself be robbed of magical objects) and then he tries to fix the situation during the rest of the film, which is, on the one hand, an evergreen of a large number of Czech fairy tales and, most importantly, it is a plot about two things. The two central protagonists are not very interesting, or, surprisingly, even sympathetic: the man enters the action as a dolt who just causes problems, and the woman is introduced as a skilled manipulator who greedily takes advantage of her suitors and then turns into a vulnerable object of desire, passively waiting for rescue. They of course both fall in love with each other during their first fleeting encounter (she considers him a thief and pours water on him), more because the script required it rather than naturally flowing from their interaction. In the second half the story is transformed into a not always completely meaningful and not very clever series of chases, fights and traps, and the film contains nothing that is even remotely scary (even Lucifer acts like a caring uncle) and surprisingly offers relatively little humor. The film is somewhat saved by a decent film set, including a remarkably contrived concept of hell, occasional original imaginativeness, several visually more narrative sequences, nice acting performances here and there (in particular Ondřej Vetchý) and, above all, the clear political dimension mentioned above. (2018.11.26)

A nice and fairly entertaining fairy-tale whose negative aspects are at the same time in a weird way the strengths of the entire movie. For instance, it’s been a long time since I saw a more significant collaboration between Czech and Slovak actors, and I was really happy about it. However, I wouldn’t have expected that it would be so hard for Judit Bárdos to speak Czech. I don’t want to hold it against her. I simply found it surprising. In terms of acting and beauty, she sure is the most beautiful fairy-tale character in the past twenty years. The story is also pretty original and imaginative, but if it weren’t for the corruption in the town of Pytlov, there would be nothing for the story to narrate. And as regards humor, sometimes the movie is funny, but then all of a sudden you have nothing to laugh at for about five minutes. All in all, at first sight, I gave the movie a four-star review, but then I decided to tone it down a bit because when I thought about how excited I was walking home from the cinema after seeing Angel of the Lord 2 because I must admit that I didn’t have the feeling of a well-made fairy-tale this time. (2018.12.16)

"Are you the reason this backwater is such a mess???"Three Brothers was a funny fairy tale, The Magic Quill is a fantastical comedy. And absolutely brilliant! I’m very happy with the casting of almost all the roles, the script is both funny and makes sense, Marek Najbrt's direction has just the right shot rhythm, and the set design, including the old-school effects, is great. I laughed every once in a while and I have to admit that the comparison with Give the Devil His Due is truly merited byThe Magic Quill. Don’t let sin be your ruin! (2019.12.31)

I consider The Magic Quill to be above average, but I must admit it’s more about the actors than the writing. It seemed a bit "trapped" at times, and it could also use a bigger dose of humor. As usual, there was singing and dancing, which is a real put-off for me in fairy tales. I enjoyed Jana Plodková’s performance in each of her scenes and I just wished she had a slightly bigger role. (2019.05.04)