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BY JASON BLAIR
Helene (Sidse
Babett Knudsen)
and Jacob (Mads
Mikkelsen) in
After the
Wedding
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SHREK THE THIRD PG
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A man of few words faces the dilemma of his life
AFTER THE WEDDING:
Directed by
Susanne Bier. Written by Bier and Anders Thomas
Jensen. Cinematography, Stine Hein, Ole-Kragh
Jacobsen, Morten Søborg and Otto Stenov. Music, Johan
Söderqvist. Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgård,
Sidse Babett Knudsen and Stine Fischer Christensen. IFC
Films, 2007. R. 120 minutes. In Danish, Swedish, Hindi and
English, with English subtitles. 44441
W
hen we first meet Jacob (Mads
Mikkelsen) in the ghettos of
Bombay, he seems a peaceable
sort. When he isn’t distributing food to
needy children or teaching them classroom
English, he’s raising Pramod (Neeral
Mulchandani), a hushed boy from the
orphanage where Jacob works. Yet sadness
hangs about Jacob like dust. His orphanage
is about to go broke, but Jacob’s pain is
older and less material than that, as evinced
by the occasional flashback of a woman’s
fingers stroking his arm in low light.
Wounded and intense, Jacob hurts. His
moral clarity is undeniable, but there’s
something burning at the edges. He behaves
like a saint, but he has the face of the sinner.
To save the orphanage, Jacob flies to
Copenhagen to meet Jørgen (Rolf Lassgård),
a philanthropist interested in Jacob’s work.
Jørgen is a paradoxical figure, generous but
distant: He seems completely disinterested in
the orphanage itself but insists Jacob attend
his daughter’s wedding the next day. (For
both men, it seems, acts of charity don’t bring
peace.) Touchingly, Jacob is a stranger in his
own country, particularly during the lavish
ceremony, after which he learns some shock-
ing news: Jørgen’s wife Helene (Sidse Babett
Knudsen) is Jacob’s ex-lover. And as if the
odds weren’t long enough, the young bride
may be Jacob’s daughter.
Savvy readers will recognize the sign-
posts: We’ve crossed the boundary from
drama into melodrama. There’s no denying
that the emotions in After the Wedding are
huge, and coincidence is central to the over-
all story. But director Susanne Bier
(Brothers) knows her material, which she
executes magnificently. Bier manages to
contain the melodrama, keeping it situation-
al — that is, in the events rather than the per-
formances — while at the same time solicit-
ing four lead performances that are nothing
less than superb. Of course, whether coinci-
dence explains Jacob’s arrival is up to you.
Jørgen never admits to purposely luring
Jacob to Denmark, not even when Jørgen
reveals a crisis of his own. A crisis, as it hap-
pens, only Jacob can solve.
An Academy Award nominee for Best
Foreign Language film of 2006, After the
Wedding is a beautifully photographed
film, using a fitful but delicate style to
alight upon the hands, lips and eyes of the
principal actors. There are occasional cuts
to fields of wilting vegetation, as if to
underscore the life-and-death issues within
the film (although the motif of the dead fox
was probably one element too many). The
film’s many revelations are felt rather than
shown. Nowhere is this more true than the
final scene, a moment of subtle power that
elevates what is already a distinguished
work of art.
ew
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