Right up Haneke's alley, and as good an adaptation as Welles' of "The Trial". I was surprised to see critics ragging on this for not being "funny" enough, played too straight, when that's what makes Kafka so affecting. That particular, skin-crawling Absurdist humor only comes out when the overwhelming incomprehension is real and threatening; it's reactive. Haneke works to that end ably, here.

I know that it's supposed to be aimless and frustrating, but that doesn't make for good viewin'. Competently made but there's no reason to watch this, really.

"Haneke's careful and faithful cinematic adaptation of Kafka's book manages to capture the surreal, paranoid, mysterious, existential, stifling atmosphere. A cheerless man hired to survey a castle is given the run-around by the locals, befriending some and fighting everyone else, wading through absurd rules, hierarchies, social obstructions, inefficiencies and finding that he never progresses closer to his goal. The movie even jumps between scenes and ends unfinished like the book."

The story is as faithful as it can be, and Haneke does a good job of evoking the unusual rhythms of Kafka. And he doesn't try to make K. too sympathetic. But it doesn't feel quite right. The drab palette is appropriate, but black and white would have been better. And the voiceover felt unnecessary. The novel is told in the third person voice, but it feels first person. And it just didn't seem absurd enough. You don't get the sense of K.'s epic, labyrinthine struggle. But it's a good effort.

Bressonian surrealism sounds like a strange combination, almost an oxymoron, but somehow it just clicked with me and I was entirely compelled from beginning to end.