1 Film Excess nomination:
Best Child Actor: William Jønkh Nielsen, Markus Rygaard (lost to Kiernan Shipka for Mad Men S4)
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| One of the very dramatic posters for Susanne Bier's In a Better World |
The story starts in Southern Funen, Denmark, where a boy gets bullied as 'the rat', until he gets a new friend, who knows how to fight back. In a refugee camp in Africa, the victimized boy's father works as a doctor.
In a Better World is full of moral dilemmas and is an ideal conversations starter, which certainly inspired disagreements among the people I saw it with. All the actors are outstanding, and they are the film's main quality: Trine Dyrholm (Daisy Diamond (2007)), Mikael Persbrandt (One Way (2006)) and Ulrich Thomsen (Banshee (2013-16)), but also the film's two main boy actors, William Jønkh Nielsen (Danny's Doomsday/Dannys Dommedag (2014)) and Markus Rygaard (The Great Bear/Den Kæmpestore Bjørn (2011)).
Unfortunately the script, by Anders Thomas Jensen (The Salvation (2014)) and Danish master co-writer-director Susanne Bier (Brothers/Brødre (2004)), carries the subtext out in its dialog a bit too candidly. The shakiness of the camera, (cinematographer Morten Søborg (Valhalla Rising (2009)), is unnecessary, SPOILER and I also find the ending too neat.
Still, In a Better World is a pretty good film.
Related posts:
Susanne Bier: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2012 in films - according to Film Excess
Love Is All You Need/Den Skaldede Frisør (2012) - Bier strikes gold with Italy-set romcom
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Brothers/Brødre (2004) or, A Woman Came Between Them
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Approximately 5.5 mil. $ (30 mil. DKK)
Box office: 9.6 mil. $
= Big flop
[In a Better World was released August 26 and runs 118 minutes. Filming took place in and around August 2009 in Funen, Langeland and Kenya. Bier has stated about the film: "Our experiment in this film is about looking at how little it really takes before a child – or an adult – thinks something is deeply unjust. It really doesn't take much, and I find that profoundly interesting. And scary." The film opened #53 to a 33k $ first weekend in 4 theaters, peaking in 51 in North America, where it grossed 1 mil. $ (10.4 % of the total gross). The films 3 biggest markets were its native Denmark, where an impressive 448k paid admission to it, with 4.9 mil. $ (51 %), Sweden with 2.2 mil. $ (22.9 %) and Spain with 1.3 mil. $ (13.5 %). The film won the Best Foreign Film Oscar, beating Incendies, Biutiful, Dogtooth and Outside the Law, and the foreign film Golden Globe as well as the Danish Bodil Best Actress award to Dyrholm. In a Better World is certified fresh at 77 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of In a Better World?
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