Key House Mirror/Nøgle Hus Spejl (2015) - Nørby elevates grim dementia-themed drama

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A beautiful romantic still on a Copenhagen rooftop with natural backlight is doubled on this poster for Michael Noer's Key House Mirror

 

Lily has moved into a nursing home with her husband of more than 50 years, who has turned into an immobile vegetable. But she doesn't require care, and her continued zest for life leads her to a new romantic acquaintance.

 

Key House Mirror is written by Anders Frithiof August (A Fortunate Man/Lykke-Per (2018)) and great Danish filmmaker, co-writer/director Michael Noer (R/R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (2010)). The title is a literal translation of the original Danish title.

The film takes a tit for tat approach to the third age, which makes it hard to enjoy, as the nursing home as life's last stop-over looks like an individual-suffocating death prison of human disintegration.

Ghita Nørby (Den Stundesløse (1973, TV movie)) lifts the film considerably and is outstanding, impressively bereft of vanity and fully credible in a generous, very commendable performance. Sven Wollter (A Song for Martin/En Sång för Martin (2001)) is warm as her Swedish nursing home boyfriend, but Key House Mirror lacks something unexpected: The plot moves forward in a way that is too predictable, and the scenes with Trine Pallesen's (Tempelriddernes Skat II (2007)) daughter character and her family are a drag in their cold predictability. Key House Mirror may be called a grim watch, as it acknowledges that mostly everything is ugly and horrible.

 

Related posts:

 

Michael Noer: Northwest/Nordvest (2013) - Strong performances make Noer's underwritten crime thriller work

Top 10: Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

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]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

R/R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (2010) or, Prison Ain't Nice 

 

 

Watch a behind-the-scenes clip from the making of the film

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: In excess of 1.09 mil. $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.42 times its cost)

[Key House Mirror premiered 23 January (Göteborg Film Festival) and runs 91 minutes. The film sold 94,423 tickets in Denmark, at an average 87 DKK ticket prize coming to approximately 1.09 mil. $. The film was also released in Germany, Sweden and France, but with unreported (likely small) gross numbers. If made on a realistic 3.5 mil. $ budget and with a 1.5 mil. $ final gross, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film was nominated for 4 Robert awards (Denmark's Oscar), among other honors. Noer returned with Papillon (2017). Nørby returned in Dagny (2016, short), Lux Aeterna (2017, short) and theatrically in Before the Frost/Før Frosten (2018); Wollter in Odd & Maud (2016, short) and theatrically in Solsidan (2017). 508 IMDb users have given Key House Mirror a 6.9/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of Key House Mirror? 

Top 10: Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

1. The Way He Looks/Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014) - Daniel Ribeiro

2. I Killed My Mother/J'ai Tué Ma Mère (2009) - Xavier Dolan

3. Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) - Sean Durkin

4. R/R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (2010) - Tobias Lindholm, Michael Noer

5. The Babadook (2014) - Jennifer Kent

6. Armadillo (2010, documentary) - Janus Metz

7. I Love You Phillip Morris (2009) - Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
 

8. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) - John McNaughton

9. Monsters (2010) - Gareth Edwards

10. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005) - Judd Apatow

Other great debut movies, including a documentary, reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetical order):

(500) Days of Summer - Marc Webb
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006) - Dito Montiel
A Soap/En Soap (2006) - Pernille Fischer Christensen
Alive Inside/Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory (2014, documentary) - Michael Rossato-Bennett
Crank (2006) - Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Zack Snyder
The Deadly Companions (1961) - Sam Peckinpah
Dumb and Dumber/Dumb & Dumber (1994) - Bobby & Peter Farrelly
Everything Must Go (2010) - Dan Rush
Klown/Klovn - The Movie (2010) - Mikkel Nørgaard
MacGruber (2010) - Jorma Taccone
Nothing's All Bad/Smukke Mennesker (2010) - Mikkel Munch-Fals 
Obvious Child (2014) - Gillian Robespierre
The Scent of Green Papaya/Mùi đu đủ Xanh/L'Odeur de la Papaye Verte (1993) - Tran Anh Hung
The Witch (2015) - Robert Eggers 
Zombieland (2009) - Ruben Fleischer 

Other good debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetic order):

Bullhead/Rundskop (2011) - Michaël R. Roskam
Camping (2009) - Jacob Bitsch
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) - Peter Care
Demolition Man (1993) - Marco Brambilla
The Driller Killer (1979) - Abel Ferrara
Edge of the City (1957) - Martin Ritt 
Eraserhead (1977) - David Lynch 
Evil Dead (2013) - Fede Alvarez
Fruitvale Station (2013) - Ryan Coogler
The Greatest Showman (2017) - Michael Gracey 
The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) - Peter Cornwell 
Lights Out (2016) - David F. Sandberg 
Mama (2013) - Andy Muschietti
Margin Call (2011) - J.C. Chandor
The Mysterious X/Det Hemmelighedsfulde X/Orders Under Seal/Sealed Orders (1914) - Benjamin Christensen
Primal Fear (1996) - Gregory Hoblit
Shake It All About/En Kort En Lang/Shake It (2001) - Hella Joof 
Strangerland (2015) - Kim Farrant 
Ted (2012) - Seth MacFarlane 
Teddy Bear/10 Timer til Paradis (2012) - Mads Matthiesen 

Mediocre, poor and/or failed debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetic order):

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - Chuck Russell
Accused/Anklaget (2005) - Jacob Thuesen
Bachelorette (2012) - Leslye Headland
Blind (2014) - Eskil Vogt 
Delicatessen (1991) - Jean-Pierre Jeunet
District 9 (2009) - Neill Blomkamp
Eagle vs Shark (2007) - Taika Waititi
Eight Legged Freaks (2002) - Ellory Elkayem 
The Element of Crime/Forbrydelsens Element (1984) - Lars Von Trier
The Elite/Eliten (2015) - Thomas Daneskov
The Enforcer (1976) - James Fargo 
Escape from Tomorrow (2013) - Randy Moore
Everything Is Illuminated (2005) - Liev Schreiber
Get Low (2009) - Aaron Schneider 
Harry Brown (2009) - Daniel Barber
Hesher (2010) - Spencer Susser
The Kings of Summer/Toy's House (2013) - Jordan Vogt-Roberts 
Painless/Insensibles (2012) - Juan Carlos Medina

[64 titles in total]

Previous Top 10 lists:

The best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

What do you think of the list?
What debut movies would be on yours?
What worthwhile debut films are missing here?

R/R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (2010) or, Prison Ain't Nice

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2 Film Excess nominations:
  
Best Lead Actor: Pilou Asbæk (lost to Stephen Dorff for Somewhere)
Best Director: Tobias Lindholm, Michael Noer (lost to Sofia Coppola for Somewhere)

 

+ Best Prison Movie of the Year

 

The simple French poster for Tobias Lindholm and Michael Noer's R

 

Rune arrives to Horsens State Prison, where he gets humiliated and establishes himself as a drug-smuggler. SPOILER But he winds up in a jam and gets murdered as a result, which provokes great consequences for his co-conspirator Rashid.

 

R is the kind of feature debut that creates great respect; in this case to its great, Danish writer-director duo Tobias Lindholm (A War/Krigen (2015)) and Michael Noer (Key House Mirror/Nøgle Hus Spejl (2015)), who give an unexpected, tight and goosebumps-inflicting, crime-deterring prison film. R will inevitable foster reflection and debate about the prison as an institution and a (dubious) means of corrections.

Pilou Asbæk (Ben-Hur (2016)) is impressive as Rune/R. The film investigates the brutality and logic of violence in a highly impressive raw, docu-style manner.

 

Related posts:

 

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]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Tobias Lindholm: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

A War/Krigen (2015) - The Dane goes to war in Lindholm's great third feature

A Hijacking/Kapringen (2012) - Realistic piracy negotiation drama-thriller, minimalist-Scandinavian style
The Hunt/Jagten (2012) - Vinterberg's strongest film since 1998 is a reversed Celebration (writer)

Michael Noer: Northwest/Nordvest (2013) - Strong performances make Noer's underwritten crime thriller work (co-writer-director) 

 

The filmmakers talk about the film here

Cost: 4.755 mil. DKK, equal to approximately 0.72 mil. $

Box office: Unknown

= Unknown (but likely a big flop)

[R premiered in sometime in January (International Film Festival Rotterdam) and runs 96 minutes. It was shot on location in Horsens State Prison. The film played at 15 film festivals around the world, winning a number of awards. 32,180 paid admission to see it in its native Denmark, - not an impressive number. Without foreign numbers, a definite theatrical status cannot be exacted, but if it more than doubled its gross outside of its native Denmark, it would still be a big flop. R won the Robert Award (Danish Oscar) for Best Danish Film of the Year as well as Bodil Awards (Danish critics' awards) for Best Film and Best Actor (Asbæk). R has a 7.2 IMDb average as rated by 3,406 users.]

What do you think of R?

Northwest/Nordvest (2013) - Strong performances make Noer's underwritten crime thriller work

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Lead Gustav Dyekjær Giese frontlines the tough guys on the poster for Michael Noer's Northwest

QUICK REVIEW:

Casper is a young burglar in Copenhagen's Nordvest [Northwest] neighborhood, who has gotten really tired of answering to the local immigrant hood Jamal. When he takes a job from a rocker-related gangster, his little brother gets mixed up in it ...

Great co-writer/director Michael Noer (R: Hit First, Hit Hardest/R (2010)), whose first solo-directing feature this is, succeeds in creating a suspense and a sense of realism in Northwest, which a lot of the time is carried by the actors: Roland Møller (A Hijacking/Kapringen (2012)) especially, and Lene Maria Christensen (Terribly Happy/Frygtelig Lykkelig (2008)) is good as the mother, but it is debuting amateur actors Gustav Dyekjær Giese (When Animals Dream/Når Dyr Drømmer (2014)) and his real-life younger brother Oscar Dyekjær Giese (Attack of the Lederhosenzombies (2015)) who are the film's real scoop. Lead Giese's face and gesticulation communicates his character's dual sides as a scared kid and a semi-hard kid very well.
Rasmus Heisterberg (A Royal Affair/En Kongelig Affære (2012)) co-wrote Northwest, which is a good film but unfortunately a little short, (it runs 91 minutes.) More plot elements could have been elaborated and escalated further.
Noer is currently out with his third fiction feature, Key House Mirror/Nøgle Hus Spejl (2015), about growing old and falling in love.

Watch the trailer for the film with English subtitles here

Cost: 12.6 mio. DKR (approximately 1.8 mil. $)
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[Northwest was shot in and around Northwest, Copenhagen. Despite many good reviews, the film only drew 97,452 tickets in its native Denmark, which is far from hit status. It was shown in many other countries, mostly at festivals, and a gross is not made public, so saying how it did commercially is difficult, but I will generously label it a big flop.]

What do you think of Northwest?