Movies |
Susanne Bier: “After the Wedding” and “In a Better World”
By
Published: Aug 11, 2021
Category:
Drama
If you know of Susanne Bier, it’s probably because she directed Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant in “The Undoing,” which was pandemic candy on HBO, and “The Night Manager,” a six-hour series based on an old John le Carré novel that no one had been able to crack. I know her because she directed two of my favorite films. (Unlike those streaming productions, those films are in Danish. The subtitles are not annoying.) I can’t think of better movies to see in a year when issues of justice, hate and personal allegiances are very much in the news — and on our minds.
AFTER THE WEDDING
I say I don’t have a “type,” but it’s Emma Thompson. I could equally say I don’t have a “favorite film,” but it’s “After the Wedding.” It stars Mads Mikkelsen, who has the greatest cheekbones in film. He was the villain in “Casino Royale” and the priest in Julian Schnabel’s van Gogh movie, At Eternity’s Gate. His co-star is Sidse Babett Knudsen — the Meryl Streep of Scandinavia — who plays the first female Prime Minister of Denmark in Borgen.
The story is small, and gets smaller. Jacob, a Dane in his 30s, works in an orphanage in India. He hasn’t been home in 20 years, and that’s just fine with him. Bad news: The orphanage is running out of money. Good news: Jørgen, a philanthropist, wants to write the large check that will save it. On one condition: He wants to meet the recipient. The woman who runs the orphanage can’t go. Well, Jørgen is Danish, Jacob is Danish. Jacob should go. Reluctantly, Jacob flies to Denmark. Jørgen listens to his pitch for only a few minutes before seeming to lose interest — it’s the weekend of his daughter’s wedding. To which Jacob should come. It’s not, after all, like he has anything else to do. It’s a clever set-up. Jacob doesn’t see it. You won’t either.
In other hands, this is a Lifetime movie. With Bier directing, this intense love story was Denmark’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 Academy Awards. (It lost to the German film, “The Lives of Others.”).
To read more on Butler about “After the Wedding,” click here. To rent the video stream of the movie, click here.
IN A BETTER WORLD
In 2011, it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It grossed $1 million in the United States, $13 million worldwide — it may have been seen by fewer people than any award-winning film in the new millennium.
Another “small” story, this one about justice and revenge. Anton and his wife Marianne are both doctors, but their marriage is failing, and Anton away is for months at a time, working in a Doctors Without Borders medical mission in Africa. That’s where the movie starts. And that first scene is a surprise. The refugee camp isn’t a place we pity. Life is vibrant here. And — to the viewer’s surprise — orderly. Anton and Marianne’s son, Elias, is a sweet kid who’s regularly bullied at school — a fact he doesn’t share with his parents. His friend Christian is the son of a rich Danish businessman who moved his family to London. But Christian’s mother has recently died of cancer, and he and his father have moved back to Denmark.
Two boys. One victimized and confused. One grieving and enraged. Naturally they bond.
In Danish, the title of this movie is “Haevnen,” which translates to “revenge” — and that is what the movie is about. Life hits you with a baseball bat, and how do you respond? And if you can identify your tormentor and hit him back, then what?
To read more on Butler about “In a Better World,” click here. To rent the video stream, click here.
The top-grossing films in the US this week are “Jungle Cruise,” “Black Widow,” and “The Green Knight.” You can do better.
