after the wedding

i'd seen the trailer for this one and was not really that interested
as far as i could tell the basis of the story was the messy rekindling of a past love
after the wedding of the daughter of the woman to which the man had been invited
seemingly quite innocently by the bride's father - or possibly not so innocently
i seem to have an aversion to films with any kind of love triangle thing happening
but the reviews were kind to this film and my curiosity got the better of me
especially considering an academy award nomination for best foreign language film
jacob played by new danish uber-star mads mikkelson is working in india and drawn back to denmark
to clinch a charity deal offered by the benefactor who unknown to jacob
is his past love's new husband jorgen who extends the invitation to daughter anna's wedding
it is here that recognition of his past love helena occurs and things start getting really interesting
seems the daughter's real father is you-know-who which sets off a chain of emotional unravelling of all involved
director susanne bier has very cleverly held our characters back
so that although there is emotion and anger and accusations and concern
there is also forgiveness and compassion and care and understanding
and involves all the members of the family as they work their way through this situation
and for those hanging out for the fulfillment of the suggested love cheat thing
this comes most unexpectedly and is over before we know it and dispensed with
leaving our characters to come to grips with the emotional turmoil
as the story unfolds and new twists and sub-plots are added
copenhagen and the danish countryside feature quite strongly in the film
which for me gave the film a very fresh and clean feel
the technique of closeup on the eyes seems to suggest that is where the truth lies
as in every scene involving conflict or compassion - bang - in with the closeup
so we get to know the eyes of our actors very well by the end of the film
the other repeat appearance in the film is that of alcohol
there's hardly a scene goes by where someone isn't knocking back a drink or 3
it would be interesting to find out it this is some subtle pro-drink or anti-drink message
or just danish film-making trying to be honest and showing it the way it is
i was very much taken in by this film and found i had empathy with the main 4 characters
there's some quite emotional scenes that found me dabbing at my eyes
and at 2 hours long it is quite a journey
and we never do find out if the husband set the whole thing up
the film opens and closes in india at the orphanage where jacob works
and the first and last scenes in denmark feature the music of the icelandic band sigur ros
one of my favourites so a another big plus
it really is quite a nicely balanced and thoughtful film