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With the moody elegance that seems to creep its way through all of Danish cinema, Susanne Bier has created what at first appears to be just a standard romantic triangle movie, but slowly escalates into a somewhat taut passionate psychological drama - only to eventually turn right back around into an overtly predictable diatribe on marriage, loyalty and desertion. But while it is on - which I must say is at least three fourths of its running time - it is definately on.
Actually two stories intermingling with each other, as a Danish army officer is shot down and presumed dead, his family back home mourns his apparent death and the officer's estranged ex-con brother falls for the grieving widow - and she falls back. With nothing more than a single kiss - and many a lusty what-if - the brother and widow seek solace in each other, and in doing so both grow as human beings. Meanwhile, the husband is lost in his own Hearts of Darkness nightmare in a Taliban POW camp. Once the husband finally comes home, nothing can ever be the same.
Well acted all around, especially Connie Nielsen as the bewildered, nearly lost widow. The film is chilling at times and gives way to a dark underbelly, not at first evident. Bier, in the vein of fellow Danes, von Trier and Vinterberg, definately has the strength of convictions going for her - and although it gets muddled sometimes here - the end result is a heavily-weighted mood piece designed for those of us who don't see the world in a cookie-cutter Hollywood way. [11/17/05]
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