>>REVIEW
AFTER THE WEDDING
STARRING Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgård, Sidse Babett Knudse, Stine Fischer Christensen and Christian Tafdrup
DIRECTED BY Suzanne Bier
Opens Friday, June 8
The Globe
Irony may be dead, but that doesn’t mean the only other option is sentimentality. Nominated for a 2006 Academy award for best foreign film, Denmark’s After The Wedding refuses to shock, push a social message or make a moral judgment, but the result is far from dispassionate. Co-writers Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen use character closeups instead of social commentary in their story of familial unravelling. Though the film’s premise is familiar, Bier’s direction evades conventionality and produces a compelling story steeped in simmering disquietude.
Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen, recognizable from his villainous role in Casino Royale) returns to Copenhagen from his orphanage work in India to request grant money from billionaire Jørgen Hansonn (Rolf Lassgard). Jørgen invites Jacob to the wedding of his daughter Anna (Stine Fischer Christensen, seen in last year’s startling Princess), and promises to revisit Jacob’s proposal after the ceremony. However, when Jacob sees Jorgen’s wife Helene (Sidse Babett Knudsen), his past and his future collide and he finds himself caught between the distant life he’s created and the one he left behind.
As his past unfurls, a series of twists lead from one scene to the next, but they don’t feel manipulative or goading. Neither the director nor any one person professes to know the next turn. When Jacob asks, "Is there something you’re not telling me?" he echoes the audience’s thoughts. As each small mystery reveals itself, Bier doesn’t resort to the shock value or irony now inherent in dramas. Rather, she instead pushes past spectacle and focuses on the realistic happenings of a family on the brink of collapse. Not dependent on music cues or flashy camera moves, Bier relies on her actors to tell the story, using close-ups to focus on their internal tension, keeping them at once smouldering and restrained.
The understated performances keep the film from reaching its climax too early. Mikkelsen, especially, gives a harrowing portrayal of a man forced to choose between two roads to personal retribution. The restlessness builds gradually as Jacob’s connection to the Hansonns unfolds, and Bier keeps potential soap-opera fodder in check, giving enough time to allow clichés to transform into textured plot points. As these points climb toward the climax, however, the film loses its composure and slides over the line into melodrama. The tension that was allowed to simmer boils over, and after such a carefully crafted build-up, the conclusion is overbearing and oversimplified.
Still, the harnessed, sober storytelling that characterizes most of the film makes up for the comparative triteness of its ending. After the Wedding revels in quietness and by evading cynicism and sentimentality, leaves an echo that will outlast any last-minute-twist gasp. |
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