WakenPayne
I haven't seen a movie by Suzanne Bier for about 3 or 4 years. from what I remembered Brothers was a very good movie of a shell-shocked veteran forced to kill another for his escape. This movie is one that embarrassingly sat on my shelf for a year or so on end. I consider this unfortunate because this is actually pretty good, even if it's a completely different type of drama movie.The plot is a little difficult to explain. There are 2 kids from different backgrounds, Christian and Elias. Elias' parents are getting a divorce and his father is usually an absent doctor treating people in war zones and his mother is the same but closer to home. Christian's mother recently died of leukemia and has to move from London to a Danish town (I say this because I seriously don't know if it was brought up in the movie) and they meet and through events unfolding of these 2 children, while giving focus on their families as well talks about morality and choice.The best thing about this movie is how they handle the morality and choice. First of all, it wastes no time to show "What would happen if instead this happened" it shows what happened and that was that, and I also liked how the characters while doing morally grey things are still understandable, if not likable. I mean Christian is shown seeing what kind of effect his mother's death had on him and how he sees his father as seemingly uncaring leading him to do horrible stuff like blow up a guy's car for a minor at best incident, that and I also liked how the movie tied in that with Elias' father having to treat people just in car explosions.I really have to press on because I can talk for at least another paragraph on what this movie is doing in terms of story and doing it right. The acting is fantastic. I mean the kid that plays Christian is really good as well as Ulrich Thomsen (although his performance in Brothers is better) and Mikael Persbrandt. Everyone does good and I don't think there is a single moment that feels stiff from the actors.Other good things? Well the cinematography is quite striking and beautiful at times and each of these characters feel real. If there is any complaint is that bits and pieces do feel a bit overlong and there's a plot thread that takes up a good part of the second act of the movie and while I liked seeing where it ended, in the middle of the plot thread there were many moments where I was like "We're STILL on it?!" My point is that at the beginning I didn't feel the need of why this movie needed to focus on it until the end.I'd say that Suzanne Bier is going to be a director I will look out for in the future because I haven't seen a single movie of hers so far that wasn't a satisfactory experience. I have been drifting away from drama movies recently but I'm going to say that this movie put me back into the genre. I'd say watch it because while it does talk about morality and choice it isn't edited in a way that shows other outcomes if they did it differently but it's not brought up in the dialogue that often but even then when the parents talk about bullying and how the kids react to it is done in a way that isn't just out of nowhere. I'd say check it out.
paul2001sw-1
Susanne Bier's most recent film was a frivolous rom-com starring Pierce Brosnan; so it's almost a surprise to be reminded how tough her previous work was. 'In a Better World' tells a story of playground bullying, civil war, parental death and alienation. I've seen more subtle treatments of these themes but nonetheless, there's a real power to the themes, which portray both the inevitable hardships of life, but also the way that human social structures build on a further layer of misery and grief. And also the way that our own reaction to the injustices we suffer can drive us to make the world an even worse place. In spite of the darkness, this is still an engaging movie, with warm, sympathetic characters. The drama isn't quite as acutely particular as it was in my favourite film of Bier's, 'After the Wedding'; but it's still worth watching.
Hannah Lee Olson
In a Better World is an extraordinary film that exemplifies the sorrow, anger, and frustration that comes with death, loneliness, and injustice. This film connects the lives of two families through the hardships of two struggling boys, Christian and Elias. The Danish director, Susanna Bier, continuously reiterates the Christian parable that Jesus tells of turning the other cheek. It is inspiring to see the entire cast struggle between the moral questions of whether it's better to forgive and forget or fight for what is just. Which makes the audience wonder: what is the best approach to cruelty in the world? Elias is a young boy with unsightly teeth who gets extensively bullied in school, for both his "rat-like" teeth and shy nature. The parent's of Elias, Marianne and Anton, are both highly successful doctors that are going through a painful divorce. Additionally, Anton is a travel doctor that is gone for months at a time in an Africa village. The combination of Elias' parent's divorce, father's frequent absences, and the cruel bullies at school make his life difficult. Although Elias' has many grievances in his life, he never seems to lose faith in humanity and is surprisingly optimistic about life. The optimism that Elias holds is not shared with his new friend, Christian, who is an incredibly troubled boy that lost his mother to cancer. Christian struggles at home as well but for different reasons. His father, Claus, makes various attempts to connect with his son but to no avail, as Claus is often gone and Christian is unresponsive to his father's kind gestures. After his mother's death, Christian struggles between what is just and what is revenge. For example, Christian saves Elias from a bully at school but through incredibly violent measures. The unbalanced means to which Christian fights for justice endanger people's lives and incriminate his own life. Although there is no mention of Jesus, the theme of "turn the other cheek" is apparent. When Anton separates his son Morten from a fight with another boy on a swing set, the father of the other boy approaches Anton and slaps him for touching his son. Anton does not fight back with this man because he beliefs that violence does nothing but perpetuate hate. In fact, Anton goes back to this man to show his sons and Christian that there is nothing to fear because all this man had was a fist. He allows the man to slap him in the face several times and still Anton did nothing. This imagery was incredibly powerful because it was a literal turn of the cheek and showed the meaninglessness of violence. On the other hand, Christian did not feel like justice was achieved through turning the other cheek, he felt the man deserved to be punished. With the death of his mother hanging over his head, the world appears like a cruel place that needs justice, which, for him, meant revenge. Christian convinces Elias that they need to build a small bomb to blow up the man's car. He claimed that this would truly make that man feel sorry for being a jerk to Elias' father. Inevitably the bomb only led to placing other people's life in danger and almost killed Elias. The revenge that Christian attempted to achieve led only to destruction, which shows that violence does not lead to absolution. However, I argue that violence did lead to justice in one instance in the film. While in Africa, Anton battled through whether or not he should heal an evil gang leader's leg. The gang leader had stabbed several pregnant village women's bellies and was severely hated within the village. When the gang leader approached Anton with a request to heal his leg, he obliged. Many of the villagers were upset with Anton and even the nurses refused to help Anton heal the man. By healing the man's leg, Anton was essentially turning the other cheek once again. It was difficult for Anton to heal this man knowing that he had caused misery in the village. After the man's leg is healed, he was still ungrateful and targeting woman in the village. This made him unworthy of mercy and Anton let the villagers beat him to death. Death is a prominent element alluded to in various different forms. By different forms, I do not mean just through physical death. For example, near death is experienced, dealing with the death of a loved one, and contemplation of taking one's life. Elias undergoes the near death experience when Christian and him blow up the jerk man's car. This element shows the pain and sorrow that occurs when someone is "almost" taken away from the world. Both Christian and Claus experience death of a loved one, which brought forth the hardship of letting go. Christian felt as though Claus gave up whereas Claus felt he let go for his wife's sake. The differing perspectives separate Claus and Christian from each other and lead to a loss in connection between father and son. Finally, Christian experiences the contemplation of taking one's life when he thinks he killed Elias. Susanna Bier used various cinematic techniques that made this film successful and emotionally riveting. For example, she used a hand held camera during scenes that contained intense dialogue and emotion, which created an up close and personal appeal to the characters. Additionally, she highlighted the beauty of nature in a heavenly way by scanning over the seaside and by scanning over the landscape of dry Africa. These contrasts in natural land were striking and revealed the glorious elements that nature can provide. I believe this film did an exemplary job of showing the after effects of death, injustice, and loneliness that may occur in daily lives. Overall, I loved this film and would recommend it to anyone that can handle an emotional plot line with a great moral message.
