Review of “After The Wedding” & “Knocked Up”
Portraying melodrama is a dicey affair. At a base level it is rendered as Days Of Our Lives. But when done correctly, what comes about is the emotive intimacy that is the Danish film, After The Wedding.
The initial scenes, though mesmerizing, don’t hint at what’s ahead. It’s a great gotcha at the front end. With another 2/3’s of the way through, that is another curve ball.
Mads Mikkelson is a beloved teacher at an orphanage in India. The headmaster implores him to travel to Denmark in an attempt to cajole an interested billionaire philanthropist — Rolf Lassgard — into underwriting the future of the haven for street urchins. Mikkelson, reluctant to leave the youngsters who adore him for even a day, finally agrees to the trip, when he’s advised Lassgard requires they meet face to face.
When there, Mikkelson is asked to attend the wedding of Lassgard’s daughter, Stine Fischer Christensen. There he meets Lassgard’s wife, Sidse Babett Knudsen. Personal intimacies and plot twists and turns not foretold ensue.
I shan’t say more. The gotchas are so delectable that it wouldn’t be fair to spoil the plot.
In lesser hands than writer/director Susanne Bier, this would have been suitable only for afternoon television. (Didn’t I write a similar line about Away From Her’s director, Sarah Polley, just recently? Probably so.) Instead After The Wedding reveals itself with such craft that it was nominated — deservedly so — for an Oscar last year in the Best Foreign Film category.
Much of the movie’s resonance emanates from the use of natural lighting and hand held cameras. It’s not a Dogma 95 production but well could be. The interactions are presented so visually tight that emotions generate visceral audience reaction.
What makes this film especially welcome is that it is but one of a number of foreign movies Baxter Theaters has chosen to bring in recently. Perhaps they are getting back to where they once belonged, eschewing the big popcorn flickers — Spidey 3 on three screens — for smaller, more intoxicating fare. If so, hats off to the Apex Theater ownership.
Anyway, After The Wedding is a lovely and mature film.
* * * * *
Knocked Up is the current critics’ fave. Not without reason. One has even gone so far as to call it The Graduate for contemporary times. Maybe so. Maybe not. But the comedy of current manners featuring Seth Rogan and Katherine Heigl delves plenty deep into the psyche of today’s society.
One night at a bar, Rogan, a slacker living with buddies while they set up a web site that would tell readers how far into a movie stars disrobe, hooks up with Heigl, an E! channel talking head. They get drunk. Improbably they get it on.
(Of course, given the puritanical standards of the day, Heigl doesn’t disrobe during sex. Nor, really, does Rogan. I’m so tired of these unrealistic depictions of physical intimacy. We’ll show character’s bodies being ripped into pieces with blood spurting everywhere. But, heaven forbid, the audience should see a nipple, or, gasp, a guy’s penis.)
As I trust you’re aware, Heigl becomes pregnant, and the awkward twosome is forced to get to know each other.
Truth be told, the film is not about them. It is more about the lesser characters and their portrayal of what life is about these days. At least for white folks with more than subsistence means of support. Heigl’s sister, Leslie Mann, and her hubby, Paul Rudd, provide a acute look at Heigl’s possible future, how kids and career affect relationships. Rogan’s buddies bring the stature of that slacker strata to its knees. It will never be more accurately and compassionately portrayed.
There are other little characters whose moments are truly what the film is about. A girlfriend — Charlyne Yi. A doorman at a nightclub — Craig Robinson.
Knocked Up is funny, at times, scathingly so. Judd Apatow wrote as well as directed the movie. He’s nailed the foibles of our times. He’s also dissected very real issues we face. And presented them in a manner both realistic, and, more important, entertaining.
It’s a good thing. The film is funny. (Didn’t I already say that?) The film is wise. (I think that’s a new observation.) What a rare beast these days.
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