Truth About Men/Sandheden om Mænd (2010) - Arcel's witty meta-dramedy

♥♥♥♥

 

'An (anti)romantic comedy' reads the translated tagline on this Danish poster for Nikolaj Arcel's Truth About Men

 

Mads is in his 30s; he has moved into a house with his girlfriend, who now feels broody. He then moves out and gets a younger girlfriend, until she splits on him, and he also has problems with his writing. Alas and alack!

 

This midlife-crisis dramedy is skillfully told and visualized, as could be expected from its great Danish co-writer-director Nikolaj Arcel (King's Game/Kongespil (2004)). It's got poignant lines and lots of material to mirror ourselves in, (whether we want to or not.) And Thure Lindhardt (Keep the Lights On (2012)) is good in the lead.

Detractors: SPOILER The 'good story' fanaticism of the film's structure gets the best of it towards the end. And the closing point of the basic mediocrity of life just sucks.

Truth About Men is written by Arcel, Rasmus Heisterberg (A Royal Affair/En Kongelig Affære (2012)) and Lars Kaalund (Hjørdis (2015), TV-series).

 

Related reviews:

 

Nikolaj Arcel: The Keeper of Lost Causes/Kvinden i Buret (2013) or, Grumpy and Ethnic Find a Woman in a Pressure Chamber (writer) 

A Royal Affair/En Kongelig Affære (2012) or, Mad King of Denmark!  (co-writer-director)

Cecilie (2007) - Well-made but unoriginal Danish horror  (co-writer)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Unknown (but likely a big flop)

[Truth About Men was released October 7 (Denmark) and runs 91 minutes. It was made with support from the Danish Film Institute and DR (Danish public radio and TV). Its budget is undisclosed. It sold 94,998 tickets in its native Denmark and was also released in Germany and in festivals in Sweden and Finland. Unless any of these markets boomed to a surprising degree, the film should probably be counted as a big flop. It got nominated for 12 Roberts and Bodils in Denmark. It was also chosen as Denmark's candidate for the Nordic Council's Film Prize. 1,038 IMDb-users have given Truth About Men a 6.8/10 average.]

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