Stricken (2009 film)

Stricken
Stricken
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Reinout Oerlemans
Produced by	Reinout Oerlemans
Starring	Barry Atsma; Carice van Houten
Production; companies	Eyeworks; Inspire Pictures; RTL Entertainment;
Distributed by	Benelux Film Distributors
Release date	26 November 2009;
Running time	105 minutes
Country	Netherlands
Language	Dutch
Box office	€9.3 million (Netherlands)

Stricken (Dutch: Komt een vrouw bij de dokter) is a 2009 Dutch drama film directed and produced by Reinout Oerlemans and based on the book by the same name by writer Ray Kluun. The film was the highest-grossing Dutch film of the year with a gross of €9.3 million and is one of the 20 most popular Dutch films of all time.^[1]

Plot

Stijn (Barry Atsma) is a rich, handsome, and self-centered advertising executive who lives in a hedonistic world. Everything revolves around him. He has a successful career and a loving marriage with Carmen (Carice van Houten). Occasionally he cheats, but it is tolerated due to his enthusiastic and impetuous character. Fate strikes as it turns out that Carmen is suffering from breast cancer. He supports her, but as it can sometimes be difficult, he will often go between meeting with Roos (Anna Drijver), with whom he has a tempestuous affair, and lying to Carmen. After Carmen is declared cured, Stijn comes clean with his cheating and breaks up with Roos. Afterwards, Carmen becomes sick again, this time terminally ill. Stijn breaks his promise to Carmen and resumes his relationship with Roos, although Carmen forgives him. She commits physician-assisted suicide by drinking a poison provided by a physician (Sacha Bulthuis). This does not work, so she then gets an injection from the doctor and finally dies. After the death of Carmen, Stijn goes even further in his relationship with Roos.