In a Better World (2010)
(Hævnen)
Country: DK/SW
Technical: col/2.35:1 119m
Director: Susanne Bier
Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Wil Johnson, Ulrich Thomsen, Trine Dyrholm, William Johnk Nielsen, Markus Rygaard
Synopsis:
Two boys in a Danish school form an uneven and potentially destructive friendship: one who has just lost his mother to cancer and smoulders with resentment at the world; the other whose parents are doctors going through a trial separation, the husband ploughing an idealistic furrow dispensing aid to mutilated collateral victims of an unspecified African country.
Review:
Bier's film sets up a Christian/civilising philosophy of 'treat your enemy as you would have him treat you' in contest with the desire for vengeance or pre-emptive self-defence. By having at least two likely tragic conclusions skirted but then reversed, and ending with all relationships in peaceful closure, it risks accusations of the very idealism as evinced by the father that it elsewhere so convincingly challenges, which explains its popularity among Academy voters (it won the Foreign Language Oscar). It is, however, beautifully made and impressively acted, and at least confronts some difficult questions head-on even if it succumbs to sentiment.
(Hævnen)
Country: DK/SW
Technical: col/2.35:1 119m
Director: Susanne Bier
Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Wil Johnson, Ulrich Thomsen, Trine Dyrholm, William Johnk Nielsen, Markus Rygaard
Synopsis:
Two boys in a Danish school form an uneven and potentially destructive friendship: one who has just lost his mother to cancer and smoulders with resentment at the world; the other whose parents are doctors going through a trial separation, the husband ploughing an idealistic furrow dispensing aid to mutilated collateral victims of an unspecified African country.
Review:
Bier's film sets up a Christian/civilising philosophy of 'treat your enemy as you would have him treat you' in contest with the desire for vengeance or pre-emptive self-defence. By having at least two likely tragic conclusions skirted but then reversed, and ending with all relationships in peaceful closure, it risks accusations of the very idealism as evinced by the father that it elsewhere so convincingly challenges, which explains its popularity among Academy voters (it won the Foreign Language Oscar). It is, however, beautifully made and impressively acted, and at least confronts some difficult questions head-on even if it succumbs to sentiment.
(Hævnen)
Country: DK/SW
Technical: col/2.35:1 119m
Director: Susanne Bier
Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Wil Johnson, Ulrich Thomsen, Trine Dyrholm, William Johnk Nielsen, Markus Rygaard
Synopsis:
Two boys in a Danish school form an uneven and potentially destructive friendship: one who has just lost his mother to cancer and smoulders with resentment at the world; the other whose parents are doctors going through a trial separation, the husband ploughing an idealistic furrow dispensing aid to mutilated collateral victims of an unspecified African country.
Review:
Bier's film sets up a Christian/civilising philosophy of 'treat your enemy as you would have him treat you' in contest with the desire for vengeance or pre-emptive self-defence. By having at least two likely tragic conclusions skirted but then reversed, and ending with all relationships in peaceful closure, it risks accusations of the very idealism as evinced by the father that it elsewhere so convincingly challenges, which explains its popularity among Academy voters (it won the Foreign Language Oscar). It is, however, beautifully made and impressively acted, and at least confronts some difficult questions head-on even if it succumbs to sentiment.