Ticket to Romance/En enkelt til Korsør (2008) - Fredholm's middle-of-the-road Danish province swan song

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'A One-way to Korsør' (a small town in Zealand, Denmark) - '... and return to romance' reads the title and tagline translated directly from Danish on this stuffed poster for Gert Fredholm's Ticket to Romance

Rasmus, a newly graduated PhD with insight into Romanticism takes a job as a Danish teacher in an adult education center in a small province town, where he is enriched by meeting some new people, including a woman with a particular wish.

Ticket to Romance is written by Mikael Olsen and Gert Duve Skovlund (One Hand Clapping/At Klappe med Een Hånd (2001), both) and directed by Gert Fredholm (The Missing Clerk/Den Forsvundne Fuldmægtig (1971)). The film sloshes problematically around in the waters between comedy and drama without having enough laughs or unrest to convincingly be either one.
It undeniably takes us to Korsør in Southwest Zealand, but we are often simply constricted to Rasmus' classroom or a taxi, which are not elevated into cinematic places here. Furthermore, the title - both the English and the original Danish one, - is nonsensical, since Rasmus both arrive and depart from Korsør in a moving van, which, as is common knowledge, doesn't require tickets, neither one-ways or returns.
Carsten Bjørnlund (ID:A (2011)) does alright as the sometimes annoyingly withheld but lingually gifted Rasmus; Lærke Winther (3 Things/3 Ting (2017)) is sweet as his romantic interest, and Bjarne Henriksen (Where Have All the Good Men Gone/Hundeliv (2016)) is great in a supporting part as one of the students.
Fredholm focuses on the human relations and manages to give the film a core concerning a lesbian couple's ambition of having a child. But Ticket to Romance remains a Danish film that, in more than ways than one, is tiny.

Watch a trailer for the film here (no English subtitles unfortunately)

Cost: Reportedly 16.5 mil. DKK (approximately 2.49 mil. $)
Box office: Likely around 2 mil. DKK (approximately 0.31 mil. $)
= Box office disaster (0.12 times the cost)
[Ticket to Romance was released 19 September (Denmark) and runs 100 minutes. Financing was brought together from a 6 mil. DKK grant from the Danish Film Institute, from DR, Slagelse Kommune, Korsør Erhvervsforening and Zentropa. The film was only released in Denmark, where 27,790 paid admission to see it, coming to about 2 mil. DKK at the box office. Bjørnlund was nominated for the Best Actor Robert award (Denmark's Oscar) for his performance. Fredholm retired from filmmaking after the film's poor audience reception. Bjørnlund returned in Sommer (2008, TV-series), The Killing/Forbrydelsen (2009, TV-series) and Pagten (2009, TV-series) and theatrically in Nothing's All Bad/Smukke Mennesker (2010). 267 IMDb users have given Ticket to Romance a 5.8/10 critical average rating.]

What do you think of Ticket to Romance?

The Kids Are All Right (2010) - Chodolenko's excellent indie crowdpleaser

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+ Best LGBT Movie of the Year
+ Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Mia Wasikowska

The pleasant poster for Lisa Chodolenko's The Kids Are All Right

The grown siblings of two lesbian parents learn the identity of their sperm donor father, which provokes a series of consequences.

The Kids Are All Right is co-written by Stuart Blumberg (Thanks for Sharing (2012)) and great Los Angeles-born co-writer-director Lisa Chodolenko (Olive Kitteridge (2014), TV-miniseries) as her 4th feature. It is a really good film. The lesbian parenting couple are no smarter or more controlling than most straight couples, which rings true and is a nice change from the standard of exotisizing sexual minorities. SPOILER It irritates a bit at first that one of them falls for the man donor, but it seems credible in the narrative.
Julianne Moore (Blindness (2008)) and Annette Bening (Open Range (2003)) both give performances that are razor-sharp, and none of the other stars are bad either.
The Kids Are All Right is a touching, fine and funny film not to be missed.

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

Watch the official trailer for the film here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: 34.7 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Kids Are All Right premiered January 25 (Sundance) and runs 107 minutes. The script had been in development since 2004. Financing proved a challenge, and production was also halted due to Chodolenko giving birth, but it finally came together much thanks to the commitment of the three major stars. Filming took place in Los Angeles in 23 days in July 2009. The film was admitted to Sundance, although it broke the deadline, and it became a big hit there. Its distribution rights were acquired by Focus Features for 4.8 mil. $. It opened limited in 7 theaters #15 with 491k $, - a stellar 70k $ per theater average, - and wide in 847 theaters #12 to 3.5 mil. $ in North America, where it grossed 20.8 mil. $ (58.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2.6 mil. $ (7.5 %) and Italy with 1.9 mil. $ (5.5 %). The Kids Are All Right was nominated for 4 Oscars: For Best Picture, lost to The King's Speech, Best Actress (Bening), lost to Natalie Portman for Black Swan, Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo), lost to Christian Bale for The Fighter, and Original Screenplay, lost also to King's Speech. The film won 2 Golden Globes and made it onto many critics' top 10 lists of the year. The Kids Are All Right is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Kids Are All Right?