For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - In A Better World
The Impression:
The only reason this film is getting a shorter review this
week is because I’m inundated with a new dog (a rehabbing
new dog at that) and the two other movies I wrote longer
reviews for blew my mind in to a neighboring county. So,
that’s my impression.
The Reality:
Susanna Bier is a dense director. The type that doesn’t shy
away from the hard truths of our existence and in her able
hands the idea of "bullying" becomes a cross-generational,
cross-continental morality piece that thrums with complex
ideas about the way we deal with those who try to hold us
down. Set between small-town Denmark and a refugee camp in
Africa, the film follows two families that intersect as both
are beginning to crumble in to new states. At the center of
the film are the two kids Christian (William Johnk Nielsen),
a striking kid rife with dangerous anger over his mother’s
recent death, and Claus (Ulrich Thomsen), a scarecrow of a
child who is picked on in school as his parents begin to
divorce. Christian is a loose cannon, the type of
angel-faced kid my mother never let me hang around because
he’s likely to stab someone in the face after finishing off
his juice box. Claus, impressionable and hurting, is drawn
to Christian and the life of risk he lives and their
decision to "punish" an older town bully becomes the looming
threat and crux of the film.
The painful core of the film stems from the parents of the
families though, good loving people who’ve been wrenched
apart by circumstances within and out of their control. When
the threat of bullying expands in to their lives as well,
Bier exposes where the pain and anger of the children of the
film stems from. Our emotions bleed outwards and downwards
across the generation gap and Bier’s film follows their path
forwards and backwards, creating a tapestry of pain,
sympathy and forgiveness that takes the breath away.
The Lesson:
Three amazing films in one week makes it difficult for me to
decide what to write about. This is a difficulty I can live
with.
- Noah Sanders
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