Dir. Susanne
Bier, 2006, Denmark/Sweden, 118 mins, Subtitles
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgård,
Sidse Babett Knudsen, Stine Fischer Christensen
Review by Hemanth Kissoon
“But we can't control everything
in the world,” Jørgen (Lassgård)
This is one of the major themes that
run through director Bier"s last three films. Open Hearts, Brothers and now
After the Wedding explore fate/destiny/happenstance and the
impact on families after a major event, usually something
traumatic, which is a catalyst for the altering of all relationships.
Open Hearts has a car crash, and Brothers the war in Afghanistan
following 9/11. Here the event is ostensibly benign in nature – the
titular wedding. The film also continues her seeming interest
in a variety of topics: guilt, forgiveness, lust, infidelity,
honesty and hope.
“Stop being paranoid. You don't
have to be poor to have good intentions. There are people
with money and ideals,” Helene
(Knudsen)
With the Pusher films and Casino Royale
Mikkelsen is building an impressive body of work. Here
as Jacob, founder of a Bombay orphanage that is running
out of money, he is forced to return to Denmark after 20
years in India to meet a billionaire tycoon, Jørgen, to acquire some much needed funds.
Jacob's dislike of the wealthy means he only intends to spend
a minimum of time in Copenhagen. While negotiating he is
invited to the wedding of Jørgen and Helene's daughter,
Anna (Christensen), being held at the businessman's country
mansion.
“You're an angry man. That's good.
It gives you a lot of drive,” Jørgen, to Jacob.
Weddings in movies tend to be a metaphor
for a fresh start and that tradition is undermined here
as the wedding is the context for a massive revelation,
which causes reassessment of entire lives. It could have
had an audience balking at the level of coincidence if
it were not for the deft handling by cast, director, cinematographer,
composer and editor, who throughout the film are in harmony
in creating heightened emotion without veering too greatly
into soap-opera territory. Bier and her team have upped
the artistry on a visual level with impressive editing
and exciting composition which jolts and focuses without
screaming cinema verité. There
are motifs of close-ups on eyes and wedding bands which intrigue
as well as aesthetically allure. Composer, Johan Söderqvist,
segues admirably between Bollywood, Western classical and
modern scoring. All this adds up to a cinematic and intimate
portrayal of lives colliding.
This group collaboration could be
compared, though is still not quite as grandiose yet, to
the power-house duo of director Alejandro González Iñárritu
and writer Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams,
Babel) in their interest in modern fears such as disability,
complacency, war and loneliness. These are complex themes
that are not always handled satisfactorily in After the
Wedding as sentimentality rears its head on occasion but
kudos has to be given for ambition.
The film is, slightly disappointingly, classically structured
with each Act I, II and III, being linked with reveals that
happen about half an hour in and from the denouement. The
final twist comes to explain the coincidences and shares
a similar preoccupation with Isabel Coixet's My Life Without
Me: death shifting perspectives, and the preparation for
it. How do you ready those that you love for your premature
demise?
“I didn"t want you to see
me...as a dead man before I was.”
So much seems at stake in this well-crafted melodrama, in
which the director subtly continues to celebrate the human
capacity to cope.
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