This is the second Susanne Bier film I've watched and I found it to be completely absorbing. It probably didn't need to be a movie and would have been quite suitable as a TV film. As a Dogme movie it mostly worked well though occasionally I thought it used gimmicks, which I thought were perhaps not Dogme in nature. Specifically there was the use of what looked like thermal imaging segments at the beginning and end of the film and I've no idea why. There was also a section near the beginning where characters dialogue was clipped before they had finished speaking and again I didn't know why.
What carries the film is the acting and characterisation and, apart from the odd weird choices already mentioned, the Dogme style of filming serves the story very well, drawing you in as a viewer and not distracting you with flashy directorial flourishes. I read someone complaining that it didn't make sense to dispense with the language of film that has been built up over years and years but this stripped back approach makes perfect sense to me for the right story.
It isn't perfect but it's much better than the average mainstream film. I thought the ending was a little weak. It seemed right to leave the resolution ambiguous but, for me, it wasn't quite ambiguous enough. I also thought Niels' wife was much more attractive than the Caecilie character he falls in love with but that's probably just me!
What carries the film is the acting and characterisation and, apart from the odd weird choices already mentioned, the Dogme style of filming serves the story very well, drawing you in as a viewer and not distracting you with flashy directorial flourishes. I read someone complaining that it didn't make sense to dispense with the language of film that has been built up over years and years but this stripped back approach makes perfect sense to me for the right story.
It isn't perfect but it's much better than the average mainstream film. I thought the ending was a little weak. It seemed right to leave the resolution ambiguous but, for me, it wasn't quite ambiguous enough. I also thought Niels' wife was much more attractive than the Caecilie character he falls in love with but that's probably just me!