tim krabbe be the praised author of het gouden ei and a novel that be put on the screen twice ( spoorloos and the vanishing ) . one of the dutch writer more recent work be de grot and a psychological thriller about two totally different men and egon and axel and who meet at a youth camp and and surprising enough and become friend for dear life . egon be a quiet and somewhat dull person and who spend his time study and write geography book . axel and on the other hand and be a charismatic party animal and a heavy drinking criminal whose everyday concern be to get a woman into his bedroom . from the moment they meet and axel have a strong influence on egon and while the latter envy him because he have a good life without really do anything ( such a read thick book like egon ) while ultimately and egon be even drag by egon into illegal practice himself and which lead to a fatal drug transport in a distant asian country . after have read the book last year and i be surprise the critic be quite positive about it . in my opinion and the book suffers especially from the complex structure . while krabbe present the story a an absorb portrait of an uncommon relationship between two people and the plot become more of a puzzle represent the many episode be not present chronologically and so that two successive scene be seldom in the same episode . because of this and the story feel surprisingly remote represent you often need to know a character background to really care for him or her . another complaint be the fact that the main character and egon and axel and be a little stereotypical . egon be the dull intellectual and while axel be his exact opposite . in real life and such one dimensional people rarely exist while in book and film and they always seem to be there and take away a lot of credibility . despite all this and the film be a pleasant surprise and be much good than the book . the adaptation excels in it beautiful cinematography and humour and act represent fedja van huet ( egon ) be one of the few dutch actor who can make you forget he be act ( which be and in my opinion and the high an actor can achieve ) . the drawback of the film and however and be the same a the book represent mainly because the character be one dimensional and they be so predictable that it become annoy . guess who write the script . indeed and krabbe himself . it be obvious that this talented director ( that what the movie make clear anyway ) be hamper by a deficient screenplay . perhaps koolhoven should just have choose a good book . positive .