After the Wedding: Drama. Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgard and Sidse
Babett Knudsen. Directed by Susanne Bier. (R. 120 minutes. In Danish with
English subtitles. At Bay Area theaters.)
Mads Mikkelsen, the protagonist of “After the Wedding,” was last seen on
these shores weeping blood as the creepy villain in “Casino Royale,” the latest
Bond film. This time out, he’s a good guy, but he does retain an edge — a
disconcerting way of holding his gaze, a certain unwillingness to smile —
and that quality works well in “After the Wedding,” which might have been a
soap opera but somehow isn’t.
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It isn’t because the emotions presented are hardly superficial. They’re
true and uncompromising in their massive scale. They rise up like waves, and at
times they threaten to uproot the seats and wipe out the entire theater. This
Danish film was nominated for an Academy Award this year and had the misfortune
of going up against “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Lives of Others.” Against
different competition, it might have won easily. Certainly, it’s one of the
best films to open in the Bay Area in 2007.
Mikkelsen plays Jacob, a relief worker in India who makes a reluctant
return home to Denmark on a business trip. He has to court a rich big shot and
persuade him to contribute a million dollars — and if he doesn’t succeed,
his orphanage will close and scores of kids will be left stranded. This story
element is, in itself, stressful, as Jacob is about the last guy you’d send to
schmooze anybody. He’s not a glad-hander. He’s barely civil. And the
billionaire, Jorgen (Rolf Lassgard) turns out to be formidable: big, confident
and no-nonsense and clearly used to making people jump.
Jorgen’s daughter’s wedding is the next day, and he invites Jacob to
attend, saying that it’ll give them a chance to get to know each other better.
Jacob goes because there’s no saying no to a billionaire, and ends up walking
right smack into his past, in the form of — guess who? — Jorgen’s wife
(Sidse Babett Knudsen).
And no, it’s not what you expect. It’s all much more interesting than
you’d expect, as the film gradually becomes a series of utterly searing
one-on-one encounters. There are secrets, and secrets within secrets, tears and
revelations — again, not a soap opera, but life and human emotion on a grand
scale. The characters are fascinating and nuanced, and the actors go for broke.
There are no guarantees with this sort of thing, but it really is possible that
one or two scenes in “After the Wedding” will stay with you for the rest of
your life.
– Advisory: Strong language and sexual situations.
E-mail Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com.
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