secondtake Teddy Bear (2012)And you thought you were shy? This guy, who is all about power and presence, a massive bodybuilder, is a social misfit afraid of his own shadow. And I believe it. I almost felt sorry for the actor, forgetting the difference.I suppose the story from the outside is overly simple--an aging bodybuilder is looking for love, but his overbearing (and tiny) mother doesn't want him to move out and move on. So he is kind and kinder and stays and yet he has some kind of need to have a girlfriend that won't just go away. With the secret help of an uncle, he makes a trip to Thailand. And here he meets girls, but he can hardly speak, and nothing comes of it. The second day there he finds a weightlifting gym and asks if he can work out. And all of a sudden he is at ease and himself.And things go from there, not in any unexpected way. All of this is told with such touching restraint it makes you really involved. The leading man, Kim Kold, obviously a bodybuilder (like Schwarzenegger, you can't fake that stuff), is really good at playing an exceedingly quiet guy, but not a stupid one. He is going to be in a Hollywood movie ("Fast and Furious 6") this year, and who knows whether it'll be a first step or a last one. It seems like, just because of his Hulk shaped body, he has a future at least as a character actor.The movie, all told, might lack some kind of storytelling nuance. It is what it is on purpose, but so much so it sometimes floats a little. This kind of Indie style often works just the way life does--things are interesting, watching some new people do some new things in an undistracted way is going to be watchable. And this does that, and well. It's because of its sincerity that you have some kind of emotional connection. But there is no magic, either, the way some films use small casts and simple touching plots and also find a way to lift the experience into something rare. (I'm thinking here of a similar movie about an aging wrestler in South America, "Bad Day to Go Fishing," which I highly recommend.)I don't know the Danish film world much except that we, in the U.S., seem to get the cream of the crop and so the few I've seen have all been exceptional. I'd give this a look.

Sindre Kaspersen Danish screenwriter and director Mads Matthiesen's feature film debut which he co-wrote with Danish screenwriter and director Martin Pieter Zandvliet, is based on his short film "Dennis" (2007) and was screened in the World Cinema Dramatic section at the 28th Sundance Film Festival in 2012. It was shot on location in Copenhagen and Omegn in Denmark and Pattaya and Bangkok in Thailand and is a Danish production which was produced by producer Morten Kjems Juhl. It tells the story about Dennis, a 38-year-old bodybuilder who lives in a suburb of Copenhagen with his mother Ingrid. After learning from his uncle Bent that it's easier to come in contact with women in Thailand than in Denmark, he tells his mother that he is attending an upcoming competition in Germany and goes on a journey.Acutely directed by Danish filmmaker Mads Matthiesen, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a genuinely heartfelt portrayal of a man's search for a girlfriend and his relationship with his mother. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions and fine cinematography by Danish cinematographer Laust Trier-Mørk, this character-driven drama depicts a insightful study of character and contains a great score by composer Sune Martin which emphasizes it's lingering atmosphere.This incisively romantic, authentic and touching story about life-altering choices and the gracefulness of human nature, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, subtle character development and continuity, endearing characters and the empathic and heartrending acting performances by Danish actor Kim Kold, actress Chanicha Shindejanichakul and Danish actress Elsebeth Steentoft. A minimalistic and poignant love-story which gained the Directing Award Mads Matthiesen at the 28th Sundance Film Festival in 2012.

Boba_Fett1138 This is absolutely a simplistic and very straightforward movie, that you can put under the slice of life, type of category. All of the drama, characters and events feel real and are also being kept deliberately small and realistic. The movie its title is very fitting. It might sound strange for a movie that focuses on an Arnold Schwarzenegger sized body builder to have such a title but the main character, despite of his imposing size, is being a true teddy bear! A gentle giant who never gets mad at anything or anyone. He's the type of guy that always comes across as friendly but shy and he's also the type of friendly guy people can easily take advantage of, since he can't really say no to anything. He's all very well aware of this but it's just simply part of his personality and he doesn't have the right social skills to change anything about it. I do believe that many people, to some extend, can identify with the movie its main character, which to me was also the foremost reason why the movie worked out so effectively. Despite his appearance, the main character seems to lack true confidence, which also makes him uncomfortable around women and maybe is also being part of the reason why he still, at the age of 38, lives at home with his mother, stuck in the situation. I wouldn't at all be surprised if he never had a true relationship with a woman, which hurts him inside. He definitely wants to be with someone and wants to give his love and be able to express himself to someone other than his loving mother. He's not a loser type of person and watching this movie is not as depressing as I am perhaps making it sound right now. Like so many other people out there, he's simply searching for love and true happiness but he's looking at the wrong places for it. He is very well aware of this as well but the urge to find someone to be with is too big to resist any longer. I wouldn't call him desperate, that sounds too negative for my taste but it's more like that nothing else so far has worked out for him, so he begins looking where lots of lonely and somewhat social awkward, middle aged men look for 'love'; Thailand. I know I talk a lot about the movie its main character but that simply is because he's the heart and center of the movie and everything that goes on in this movie truly revolves around him. Due to circumstances and his personality he gets himself needlessly into trouble at times. The sort of trouble that is easy to avoid but he doesn't want to heart anybody and he's obviously a pleaser who wants to make everybody feel good, even if that means lying to a person who you care about. Kim Kold is a true force to reckon with, mainly due to his size and screen presence. I'm pretty sure in certain scenes they exaggerated this a bit for dramatic effect but there is no denying this is one big guy and it's of course no big surprise Kold himself actually is a bodybuilder in real life. I'm not saying he will be the new and next Schwarzenegger but I truly think he should be given a chance in a bigger- and international production. No doubt this movie will be the Danish Oscar contender this year, for best foreign language movie and by all means it should be! It's a very cute and heartfelt, straightforward movie, with real people and real life situations, that are all very easy to identify with. 8/10

Catt Jones I can see why this film won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival. This film totally pulled you into the title character fairly quickly. Right from the start you could tell that Dennis (Kim Kold) was very socially inept and was so endearing that you almost felt sorry for him. Director and writer Mads Matthiesen framed this film very well and kept you rooting for Dennis , hoping that he would gain enough courage to stand up to his dependent (and possibly also socially inept) mother. By the way, I was recently educated on the name Mads and it is a very common name in Denmark (in case anyone was wondering). Dennis, who is a championship body-builder is a very dedicated son and has apparently been his mother's sole friend all of his life. Once he sees that his friend has gone overseas to Thailand and return with a wife, Dennis decides to do some wife hunting of his own. The fact that he has to lie to his mother about where he is going is a strong indication of how unhealthy their relationship really is. Once in Thailand, Dennis discovers that there are not a lot of "good" girls around until he stumbles upon a gym and meets the owner Toi (Lamaiporn Hougaard). The fact that Toi takes the time to show him around the city and introduces him to the local culture quickly brings her up to the level of "potential" wife. Once Dennis is back home in Denmark, the lies continue and mom is thrilled to have him back home under her control (or so she thinks). There are really no surprises in this film, but it was very entertaining to see it play out. I guess the film proves that although you may be able to lift small trucks over your head, you can still be very vulnerable and unsure of yourself. In the end, Dennis did turn out to be a big ole teddy bear; however I would have probably considered calling the film Mama's Boy (smile). I am not sure if this film will ever be released to the general public, but it is one of the better foreign films that I have seen. I do have to warn that there are some sub-titles in the film, however they are very few and not at all difficult to keep up with. I liked the film, but did not love it so I am giving it an amber light.