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| Not much is revealed, besides a story that involves a man, a woman and a gun, on this forgettable poster for Henrik Ruben Genz's Terribly Happy |
A policeman from Copenhagen draws his gun on his wife and gets sent to a position in Southern Jutland as punishment. As a countryside cop there, he soon finds himself entangled in the very particular 'methods' of the locals.
Terribly Happy is written by Dunja Gry Jensen (Norskov (2015-17)) and co-writer-director Henrik Ruben Genz (Chinaman/Kinamand (2005)), based on the same-titled 2004 novel by Erling Jepsen (Ingen Grund til Overdramatisering (1999)). Despite the film having a bit of a slow uptake, it proves to be a good, exciting country-set noir/dark comedy.
Kim Bodnia (The Name of the Game/Krigarnas Ö (2016)) and Lene Maria Christensen (Brothers/Brødre (2004)) are perfect as the town's punchy heavy and its good-looking blond.
Terribly Happy has several intense scenes and homicidal-fatalistic horrors. Some minor flaws and an annoying tail to an otherwise great, wicked ending weigh it down a little bit. Still this is a very well-made and recommendable plate.
In lieu of a trailer for the film, not currently available on Youtube, here is a bizarre television event in which Jepsen is to have a conversation with Genz but slaps him playfully in the face twice in the beginning, making Genz's lip bleed so that he leaves the situation, leaving the writer awkwardly alone with the still filming camera crew
Cost: 20.5 mil. DKK, equaling approximately 3.41 mil. $
Box office: Uncertain
= Uncertain - but likely a huge flop
[Terribly Happy premiered 5 July (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic) and runs 99 minutes. The film has played at at least 16 film festivals in different countries. It had a limited release in North-America, where it peaked at #51 and in 9 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 170k $. In its native Denmark, 266,795 paid admission to see it, which is considered successful here. Unfortunately, the film played within the framework of the Cinema Club Denmark, which means that most audiences only paid half prize for their tickets. I'd predict its theatrical gross somewhere in the 15 mil. DKK range, making it still a huge flop by Film Excess' high standards. This is in line with its producer's statement in an interview that he hasn't made a dime on it. It was Denmark's entry for the 2010 Oscars, but it wasn't nominated. It won 7/14 Robert nominations (Denmark's Oscar) and 6/7 Bodil nominations (Denmark's film critics' awards). Genz returned theatrically with Excuse Me/Undskyld Jeg Forstyrrer (2012), another Jepsen adaptation. Terribly Happy is certified fresh at 89 % with a 7.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Terribly Happy?
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