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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Portraits of Happiness and Loneliness: It's Excellent Drama,
By
This review is from: Open Hearts (DVD)
Sorry, but I don't like the idea of Dogme 95, which seems to have been tailor-made for Lars Von Trier's idea on film. But still the group often produce memorable works, and after such films as "Mifune" and "King Is Alive," now another Dogme 95 film "Open Hearts" came. I'm glad to find that this is the most accesible one.I used the word "accesible," because this Dannish film (big hit there, I heard) is slightly melodramatic. That does not mean "Open Hearts" is low in quality. Far from that. It explores the story about men and women so incisively that you realize that the film is dealing with a very immediate matter, which is called love. Cecilie and Joachim are living together as a couple in love. One day, however, a car accident shatters the peaceful life completely. Joachim is severely wounded, and Cecilie has to tell him that his body is paralysed forever. Learning the fact, Joachim closes his heart to Cecilie, who is left at a loss what to do with him and herself. The driver of the car that brought the accident is Marie, mother of three kids and wife of loving husband Niels. Niels, who is a doctor, happens to get acquainted with depressed Cecilie, and gives her the number of his cellphone. Cecilie, tired of facing now morose Joachim, seeks for a solace in this newly-met doctor, and as you expect, their relations get closer than they thought at first. "Open Hearts" shows the emotional rollercoaster of the two leads and the people surrounding them, with the ever-changing relations that complicate themselves, and the more complication we see, the more intense the film gets. This kind of plot development would of course remind you that "Open Hearts" is melodramatic at its heart, but many good books in classic literature are actually melodrama -- see "Wuthering Heights" or "Anna Karenin" -- and like these past materpieces, "Open Hearts" manages to handle the matter of love quite deftly and credibly, with convincing characters and intriguing situations. You will wait for the next scene, saying "What next?" with thrilling feeling of anticipation. Like other Dogme 95 films, the film is shot in digital camera, but the film is given surprising amount of music. The director Susanne Bier's choice of it is appropriately done, and you can never associate the film with Lars Von Trier's rather somber tone. Supported by great acting, "Open Hearts" provides with a well-drawn portrait of characters who are cleverly arranged into a rivetting drama -- and the very good portraits of ordinary people in sadness and loneliness.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding adult drama,
By
This review is from: Open Hearts (Elsker dig for evigt/Älskar Dig För Evigt) [Region 2] (DVD)
For those of you that have watched Italian for Beginners, you would probably understand about the Dogma that Director adheres to in making the movie. This is truly an emotional tour-de-force that has me analysed about what love is. When what we have taken for granted is taken away from us immediately, are we to confront our life head on or that we would remain submissive and giving in to what life has in store for us? In this story, a young loving couple meant to get married soon. A freak accident permanently handicaps the man. Whilst recuperating in hospital, he self pities himself & feeling vengeful against the world for what has become of him including his girlfriend. Being left alone, she resorts to the woman driver's husband to console her who coincidentally enough works as a doctor in the same hospital. Soon, the doctor-patient line is crossed. Does he do that out of sympathy or that he loves her? Is it okay for us to move on with our lives if somebody we love truly, deeply, madly is permanently impaired? Would we be defined as being selfish? When we know that love is no longer in a marriage, is that okay to walk out of it even if that means we are to forsake quality time with our children? Once again, does that constitute as selfishness? Rather than having an open ended finale, this movie has a resolve which to me is an appropriate closure to a chapter which does provoke discussions about nature of relationship. A very well-made intelligent movie for adults. Mads Mikkelsen is the leading baddie in the latest Casino Royale. Highly recommended.
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