Review LVII
Efter brylluppet (2006)
I find it hilarious that as soon as I hit my March break - after an endless amount of midterm examinations - I get sick. This happens nearly every year, so I'm not sure why I'm surprised. Regardless of my flu, I knew I was going to catch up on watching some films since I haven't watched any since my last review. For this reason, I decided to ease my way in with Susanne Bier's Efter bryllupet, or After the Wedding, as it is known in English.
The film opens up in India where we meet Jacob Peterson (Mads Mikkelsen), a Danish man who has dedicated his life to managing an orphanage. He loves working with the children, including Pramod, a young boy who Jacob is very attached to, and for this reason, he's extremely hesitant to meet the CEO, Jørgen Lennart Hannson (Rolf Lassgård), of a company in Denmark who wishes to donate a large amount of money to the orphanage. Jacob, eventually accepting as the orphanage faces bankruptcy, promises Pramod that he will be back in time for his eighth birthday. However, when Jacob is invited to Jørgen's daughter's wedding, he discovers that he's more connected to this man than he thought.
First off, I enjoyed the way the movie was filmed. Again, which seems to be typical of Anders Thomas Jensen films (he wrote the screenplay), there was quite a bit of symbolism, and the film aimed to capture this. There were a lot of close-ups of eyes, of mounted animal heads, and of different scenes, and this gives the film a certain essence. I thought it was interestingly captured as a result.
I thought the plot was interesting. It really got you emotionally invested in the characters, and the film has many different layers to it. At first, when you realise the first secret of the family (trying not to spoil anything!), you debate how it will go from there. The film, however, didn't follow a typical plot exposition (at least I found), and I applaud it for that. Nonetheless, I thought the reasoning behind Jørgen's obsession with Jacob was a bit... off. Alright, I'm going to spoil it because it's hard to explain what I mean with no context. Skip the remainder of this paragraph if you don't wish to see spoilers. We find out that Jørgen is dying (never explains what) and he feels compelled to make Jacob the one who will take his place given the fact that he is Anna's (Stine Fischer Christensen) real father. I mean, yes, Helene (Sidse Babett Knudsen), his wife, did have a child with this man, but that doesn't mean he has to remain the father... Had the plot revolved around the fact that Jørgen wanted to see if his wife would be happier off with Jacob, then I could see why he would push to have Jacob be part of his daughter's and his wife's lives. The fact that it's because he's terminally ill seemed odd to me. He doesn't seem convinced Helene will even live with Jacob after he dies as he asks her if she will. I don't even find it's necessarily completely implied at the end that Jacob stays with Helene. I mean, they hold hands, but Helene explains to Anna at one point that they were unhappy together. When they talk throughout the film, I got the idea that they were friends rather than lovers, and while maybe this is good enough for Jørgen, again, I'm assuming his intention was to make them fall in love again, or something of the sort. Either way, the way he goes about it seems odd to me. Not completely unbelievable, but odd. I also disliked the end since we learn Jørgen is dying, and then it seems like he dies ten minutes later. We get a whole scene of him crying out that he doesn't want to die, and then boom, he's gone. I thought it would have been better to see him actually go through the process of being sick and show how Jacob becomes part of the family. Instead, it's all assumed. I thought this was weak, and considering we spent all this time getting to know the characters, it seemed like a waste. It was still interesting overall, but I think the way it went about things wasn't very in depth when it should have been.
I'd give the film a seven point three on ten. I enjoyed it, but the plot really did suffer at the end. Still, it's worth a watch as it is beautifully captured, and, well, it has Mads Mikkelsen.
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