SamoanJoes I recently had the opportunity of watching this Danish film from 2002 after it was recommended by a friend. I, not expecting much, decided to heed my friends advice and to my surprise, it was truly a wonderful film.Elsker dig for evigt stars Mads Mikkelsen as Niels, a doctor and family man whose wife and daughter accidentally run over a man named Joachim with their car. Joachim survives and stays in a hospital where Niels is their doctor. Here, Niels meets Joachim's fiancé Cecilie and the two form a bond over the tragedy and become close. What will become of their friendship? The film is shot docu-style often with jump cuts interlaced throughout to allow the film to feel more natural and raw. The performances are all fantastic and the free flowing dialogue seems as if it's improvised. Clocking in at a little less than two hours, the film does not seem long and does not slow down at any point with filler scenes. If you enjoy dramatic films, this is definitely worth a watch.8/10

dfwforeignbuff Open Hearts (2002) Elsker Dig For Evigt. ("I'll Love You for Ever" or "Eternal Love" are better titles than "Open Hearts") Open Hearts (Danish: Elsker dig for evigt), (2002), is a gritty Danish drama directed by Susanne Bier using the minimalist film-making techniques of the Dogme 95 style. It stars Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Sonja Richter and Paprika Steen. Also referred to as Dogme #28, Open Hearts relates the story of two young couples whose lives are traumatized by a tragic car accident and adultery. Cecilie is devastated when her fiancé Joachim is seriously injured in a car accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. She begins an affair with Niels, a doctor at the hospital where Joachim is being treated. Their relationship is further complicated by the fact that the doctor's wife Marie was the driver that caused the accident in the first place I have recently seen 2 of Susan Biers other films. I was not aware she had made a Dogma95 film. As I stated in reviews of her other films I am generally not a great fan of melodramas. I am a great fan of melodramas by Susan Bier. Her films make that magical transformation into REAL life (lives) and living (and dying). Open Hearts was filmed with video cameras--almost like the expert connoisseurs home movie. A young couple has plans for getting married. Joachim (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and Cecilie (Sonja Richter) Fate intervenes when Joachim steps in from of a car (accidentally) and is hit and paralyzed never to walk again or movie his hands. Susan Biers films do not use sentimentality but go directly to the emotions of the human heart when dealing with her protagonists. Joachim does not accept his fate well- rejecting his girlfriend and hurling anger at all around him. The films craftsmanship is evident and honest emotions and interactions are tackled very directly by Bier. The film is emotionally dark and bleak look at the 2 main characters. Things go for even a more spin of fate as the girlfriend makes a strange involvement with the husband of the woman who actually caused the accident. the film streams on to its gut wrenching heart rendering end. There is a resolution of sorts and here at the very end the movie but that resolution was weak for me. I have put in my queue every film by Susan Bier. Highly Recommended--but be aware this is not general entertainment movie viewing. This movie will make you feel -think- cry and more. It is a very powerful film. hats off to Biers. Certainly one of the best films of 2002. Bier skillfully captures the feeling of real emotions that extreme trauma creates within the lives of the characters in her film. five stars highest recommendation.

ThurstonHunger My second film from Ms Bier...and another impressive outing. I can see why she'll soon be working with Benicio Del Toro and Halle Berry. She seems to be drawn to awkward love stories, like daisies growing in concrete. Having a hard time avoiding spoilers, so if you've not seen this film, but appreciate the other films I've reviewed, I'd strongly recommend seeing this and we can discuss reviews afterward.SPOILERS...So for those who have seen this film, and perhaps also Brodre, it seems Ms. Bier has some consistency between them.1) a teenage girl helps to jeopardize a relationship (rightly or wrongly?)2) she has an aversion to tidy endings3) she gets excellent work out of Nikolaj Lie KaasAnd again, singlehandedly she seems to pioneer awkward love, something that happens in real life much more often than in reel life. Hmmm, "awkward love" has a clunky sound to it...maybe it would be better to refer to these as star-cursed love stories.Kaas is so good early on, even in his sweetness there is a little edge that portends the larger edge that erupts. It is interesting that both the male leads in this spurn women who love them, when arguably those men need the women the most. Very heart-stirring for me. Kaas as the paraplegic (and as a powerful actor) could have drawn the film about him, and it could have triggered a wrong focus on the issues of his damaged body and psyche.Thus his pushing away of Cecilia I think is importantly indeterminate. You could read it as his love for her, or his brutally frank assessment of his situation, or having listened to hard to pragmatic nurses and doctors, or as him seeing his condition as sort of life-ending. No one knows really, and again while that is a difficult and interesting angle, it is not at the heart of this film.With "Brodre" the tension was amplified, huge emotions swirled around that center of awkward love...war, death, spousal abuse. Here the "bomb" that is dropped is foreshadowed excellently by concerns about an upcoming mountain climbing trip, the car accident is a sudden, swift and oddly almost poetic piece of violence. So much so that every time someone set forth towards the streets afterward, I felt my heart lurch in my throat. Proof that I've seen too many movies, and was sensing an almost superstitious fear of parallel plotting. I'd be curious if others felt this, or if Biers intended this...I was often nervous through this film, albeit less so in Brodre where the soundtrack was needed as an anti-anxiety tablet. Here the nervousness often came from just the feeling that people were drifting from themselves. And yet each faux pas rang true. Mid-life crises aren't clichés...and I think they are the elephants many people try not to think of.Sonja Richter was scintillating as Cecilia, she didn't need soft focus to shed ten years off her actual age. As she wades through the aftermath of the emotional accident following the physical accident, she gathers more grace in dealing with both the men, as well as the "other" woman and the aforementioned teenager. I wish we had been privy to more of the latter interaction...but I understand why we could not be, it would have deflated the tension in the scene with Niels and Marie.And how about the alternate reality/dream sequences...almost toying with what the audience would like as much as what the individual characters might be wishing for. Capturing those moments when for some reason, we can't seem to find the true thing to do...and not necessarily because we are physically unable to do so! I wasn't sure I liked them as they occurred, but in hindsight they resonate.The translated title appears to be an odd one, maybe open hearts means open for love and for hurt? Or maybe, as we see with Brodre, Bier has a true love for open endings. Another excellent film that left me painfully curious at the conclusion to know more about the characters.Thurston Hunger 8/10

ikanboy I have become a fan of Bier's work. "After the wedding" and "Brothers" were engrossing "relationship" movies fraught with emotion, crackling dialog and unpredictable twists. This one starts with a shock. A man who has just proposed to his lover is run over by a car and paralyzed for life. We've been here before. The question is where does Bier take it? True to her fashion she takes it off on a tangent that essentially sidelines the initial plot line.Cecilli, the female lover is rejected by her paralyzed fiancée, who implodes into self hate and loss and takes it out on the people who try to take care of him. This is of course not uncommon, especially for males. Hating their dependency and helplessness they attack those who inadvertently rub this helplessness in, simply by being caretakers. Cecillia finds solace with a Doctor in the hospital, but in this case he's the husband of the woman who ran down her lover! This is where the movie goes off into another area, and while that area is fascinating and difficult to watch - adultery, bad ethics, stupidity, and moral cowardice - it leaves completely behind one vital part of the movie and that is the emotional state of the wife who caused the accident! Bier chooses to focus instead on the triangle of the Doctor: Niels (played by Mads Mikkelsen from after the wedding) Cecillia, and the Doctor's daughter who was in the car driven by her mother and feels she is the cause of the crash, because she was arguing with her mother. The daughter, Stine, seems to read her father better than the wife, and is on to his infidelity from the start while the wife allows herself to be talked out of it by a mendacious Niels. If Bier is trying to show us that the wife is shunted aside because she is out of touch emotionally it isn't portrayed in any convincing fashion.The script, as usual, is the key here. It is the dialog that keeps the movie interesting. The people come off as humans engaged in the difficult job of life. No-one is heroic, and no-one is atrocious, merely emotionally selfish. Cecillia for seducing a married man in order to feel wanted, and Niels for caving to his mid life urges at the expense of his family.I eagerly await Bier's foray into Hollywood with her movie about racism (Halle Berry and David Duchovny.)