bjarias As he is now there's no woman going to make this man happy.. and it's pretty much a given that a very personable, attractive, and mostly unhappy woman might realistically seek companionship with another man. Especially when considering the husband's distant, frigid personality. Did he want out?.. at times acting like he's deliberately trying to sabotage the relationship. Maybe he is.. not looking all too upset upon learning of her extended infidelity. And he has numerous opportunities here to try and win her back.. but when they talk about what they are going to do.. he ignores the question completely quickly changing the subject. Her hanging in there for 13+ years with him would have to be considered some kinda record. He had to have changed from their early years together into someone no one would now knowingly choose to be with, otherwise why would she have signed on long-term with him in the first place. The story otherwise mostly kinda works on its own. Except for the pregnant thing, that just came off a bit too convenient and contrived (a quick deliberate out for him), and actually detracted from the overall effect of the movie.. making the eventual outcome too easy. All in all though, it is a fairly worthwhile film, with solid lead performances, more notably her's (his character gets somewhat overplayed).

rowmorg Prague was a great setting to choose for this examination of an artistic woman married to a boring lawyer who specialises in bankruptcies. It's the city that symbolises some lost European past of a different scale and kind, and our couple are not visiting for pleasure: instead the hero has come to supervise the transfer of his dead father's body back to Denmark. Naturally, the wife is having a wild affair in Copenhagen with a randy, well-endowed, young artist, but she is still loyal to the father of her lovable young son, with whom the couple confer on Skype. It's a fascinating situation, and the director gets convincing performances out of the players, while the photography director does miracles with digital technology, creating a typically grey European winter in beautiful colours. The ambiguity that troubles the couple, causing them to mate passionately and repeatedly while having rows and freeze-outs, captures an essence of marriage that viewer-couples will find hard to resist.

random_avenger A Danish married couple Christoffer and Maja (Mads Mikkelsen and Stine Stengade) arrives in Prague, Czech Republic to sort out the paperwork regarding the death of Christoffer's estranged father. Assisted by a local lawyer and friend of the late father (Borivoj Navrátil), the couple waits for the bureaucracy to be cleared and runs into problems with their shattering marriage and general alienation in life.The city of Prague becomes a symbol for the forlorn state of the main characters: they don't speak the language, the Czech customs regarding the handling of the dead seem odd and overly emotional to the reserved Christoffer and the locations and people in general seem closed, stale, rude and introverted. The feelings of alienation, sadness and anger that so perfectly come to life on the serene face of Mads Mikkelsen are only emphasized by the gray weather, architecture and infrastructure that clearly have once been colourful and happy, just like Christoffer and Maja's life. The film is not entirely humourless pondering about the impossibility of happiness though: the bizarre misunderstandings with the locals provide small moments of dark humour, and the character of a beautiful pub singer Alena (Jana Plodková) shows that some human understanding is always possible even over the language barrier.One thing I didn't care for as much was the prominence of hand-held camera-work and often outright shaky shots during close-ups. In a way the restless movements augment the feel of naturalism of the conversations, but I tend to find them more distracting than fitting. The music often sounds highly emotional, even sentimental, but ultimately works effectively, especially at the end. Despite minor complaints, Prag is over all a satisfactory meditation on the nature of relationships between humans. The key is to gain an understanding of what's important in life, to refind the lost connection to those around you – the film is not hopeless, but does not content itself with easy answers either.

Chris_Docker A full coffin shown on an airport x-ray machine. The historic beauty of Prague. A lawyer who offers his services at no cost, no strings. The handbag of a wealthy woman and its contents thrown to a crowd in a market square.When we take elements out of context, we could make an infinite number of stories out them. Tragedy, comedy, romance. When we look at a relationship, we maybe select the details that fit a particular keyhole view. Movies generally simplify even further. To Ole Christian Madsen's credit, he at least tries to remind us that reality is rarely as simple.Christoffer (Mads Mikkelsen - the bad guy in Casino Royale) is taking his wife Maja to Prague. Perhaps he hopes that a weekend in this romantic city will be good for them, but the underlying purpose is that his father has died there and he needs to sign some papers before the body can be brought back to Denmark. Dry humour is mixed with sadness due to language difficulties. Maja asks the hotel for an adaptor plug and they send an iron (with polite reassurances).Miscommunication is also reflected in their relationship. They seem to get on well, but then Christoffer confronts his wife with evidence of her unfaithfulness, at the same time saying he forgives he and wants to make their fourteen-year marriage work. She doesn't think she is the one that needs to be forgiven. Christoffer's father has left him an audiocassette. They don't have a tape player and have to go to a jazz bar to hear it. Nothing is what it seems, and the situation unravels before us in a constantly unpredictable way.Prag dissects the pain of separation, not with the shouting and screaming of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but with the equally cutting knife of toleration and flawed understanding. As Christoffer comes to terms with possibility of life without Maja, he explores the question of identity and also the sense of 'knowing' another person. How do you define someone? Their job? Their likes? Their relationship(s)? Are we the result of the things that have happened to us or the sum of the kindness we show to others. With the analytic attitude typical of his profession as a lawyer, Christoffer tries to delineate who he is to Maja but she won't play the same game - at least verbally. Fourteen years of feelings are not thrown away so easily when there is goodwill present, even in the face of what might be irrevocable breakdown. When Christoffer meets his father's ex-housekeeper, Alena, he sees some warmth and human goodness uncomplicated by the vagaries of language. At one point, we see the two of them in silhouette, feelings beautifully portrayed and uncoloured by words.With the various languages in subtitles, we are privy to more information than any of the characters. "We're always ashamed and never good enough for the world," says Alena (in Czech). A lesson that Danish Christoffer cannot fathom.With the Czech lawyer (tidying up Dad's affairs for nothing), there is some stumbling conversation - they have enough words between them for halting conversation. "Life is hard," he tells Christoffer. "You bend it or you break."Prag has a more 'European' feel than much of Danish cinema. It lingers on detail, encourages the viewer to consider subtleties. Intellectually, it touches on areas of breakdowns in communication as did the more ambitious Babel, but it does so with a gentle warmth and hope in the face of adversity. For all its sadness of theme, Prag is a strangely beautiful and moving film.