This is the first and best movie starring Flanders' most notorious and funniest comedian Urbanus Van Anus. When he made this movie, he was in his prime, and just coming off his live tour "In't Echt", which is truly the high-point of his career. The movie has the same sense of naive and gentle humour so typical for his live shows, distinguishing Urbanus from other Flemish comedians, who think comedy is all about fart-jokes and sexist innuendo. Urbanus always looks at the world from the viewpoint of a five-year-old, and the movie follows that same kind of pattern, with Urbanus being able to play out his charms, by taking on the part of Hector, a naive man in his thirties who still lives in an orphanage, because no-one wants to adopt him. He has already consoled himself with the fact that he'll have to stay there for the rest of his life, but he seems to be fine with it, since his popularity with the young orphans is enormous. He is almost like a father to them. But then, the unthinkable happens. Hector gets adopted by a baker and his family. At first everything seems to be going quite well, but after a while it turns out that Hector simply isn't comfortable when constantly being surrounded by grownups. And he isn't of much use to the baker either, constantly messing up the poor man's work. The plot thickens, with Hector falling in love with the baker's wife, and the film ends with quite a shocking (I thought it to be) denouement, that contrasts just a bit too much with and otherwise fine example of Flemish comedy-filmmaking. Even today, this film stands out as the funniest Flemish film ever made.
Review of Hector
