Flaw in storyline (?) ! SPOILER !

Just read the book, it's worth it.

Hi
I agree some (vital) parts in the film dont make sense at all. I didn't like the image of heaven that is created in it at all, but thats not up to me to judge, I guess. Maybe heaven indeed is like that, though I actually doubt heaven excists at all.
And indeed, the angels are just totally weird. Very human-like, and pretty cruel and sarcastic and they obviously don't care a *beep* about the whole world here on earth as long as happens whatever they want. How many people have to suffer or die because of that, they don't mind, it seems. Not exactly the general type of angel, at least not those from the bible haha. But well, I'm not a Christian so I dont really believe in those fluffy-winged angels. But I dont like the ones in this film either.
Yup, I totally agree on the Quinten-issue. I'm sure theres a lot of people who also learned something in history class and can handle locks, so, techically, they could do it aswell.
But, like you, I did like the film a lot. I deffinately am going to read the book. Pitty actually that I've seen this film before I read the book.. oh well, I suppose it can only be better (the book, I mean)
Greetz, Jules (die zich afvraagt waarom we in het engels praten; de film is toch niet te zien in andere landen..(behalve Spanje, zag ik net)).

Mulisch, the author, tries to prove by all those genetics that Judaism is right about calling a child Jewish when the mother is Jewish.
Max is Jewish, but it did not matter if either Onno or he were Quinten's father. Ada was the determining factor. And without knowing it herself, she was Jewish. Her mother never told her that her maternal grandmother was Jewish. She obviously didn't know or care that this made her Jewish herself. And because the grandmother was Jewish, so was Ada, and Quinten also, even if his Jewish neighbour told him that he was the opposite of a Jew. Just goes to show you can't define who is a Jew by looking at a person.
In the context of the book/film, it would have been pointless for Max to raise Quinten as a Jew, even if he had been the father. No one, even the mother herself could not know which of the two friends had fathered her child. Max wasn't a religious person himself, and neither was Ada.
In pre-DNA test days this was useful in close-knit Jewish communities: if a child resulted from an extramarital affair or of rape, or if the mother was slandered, it never changed the official status of the child. He became a full member of the Jewish community; marry as a Jew, be buried as a Jew etc.
Mulisch had a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. I guess that in his old age, he philosophises about these things. To him it is evidently important.

As to the why of Quinten: he is an angel chosen to be on earth just for this mission and to return to heaven remembering everything about it. As a favour for completing the mission, which is completely pointless.

Still, very good book.

Last night I dreamed I ate a ten-pound marshmallow, and when I woke up the pillow was gone.
Tommy Cooper