Everyone who expects another 'Festen' is going to be disappointed and I was no exception. It's unfair to compare this big budget flick to Vinterbergs Dogma Masterpiece and still you can't help but feel that he was more at home within the cosy perimeters of his Danish community than playing around with the big boys in NYC. Joaquin Phoenix as John jets over to New York to get his wife Elena (Claire Danes), a world famous ice skater, to sign the divorce papers as a mere formality. But it soon becomes apparent that things are not what they seem and life is not as jim dandy as some people make out. Due to some serious health problems Elena wants to retire, but her management is rather keen to keep the show going so they came up with the cunning plan to import some Elene lookalikes from East Europe and give them some proper skating lessons. Thus they can take her part should Elena be no longer fit to perform. Uhhh, wicked! Although there are some nice moments and clever ideas, in the end I had the feeling the film just wanted too much and couldn't just decide on where to go. Partly Science Fiction, partly Love Story, partly social study and partly conspiracy theory the different elements just don't add up to a believable plot. At the end our Lovebirds trudge through the snow to meet their untimely death, but by then you are past caring as there are already too many loose ends. Take John's Brother Marciello for instance (a rather small part for Sean Penn); at inter walls we see him hanging around in various aeroplanes, blabbing happily away into his cellphones and talking to what I can only assume is John's Mailbox. I'm sure he parts with some riveting information, only I don't really care as it apparently has no relevance on the main story. In fact, I got the impression that he was added as an afterthought to highlight the family element. Don't get me wrong, most of the movies I really care for are rather confusing but this one seems not so much confused but runs around like a headless chicken. At first the Love Story seems to really take off, but before you get a chance to identify with the leads, everything falls apart. The whole movie is beautifully filmed and especially the scene where the three clones do some ice skating practice with Elena before they got snuffed in a rather cruel fashion is a powerful image. Yet at no point Vinterberg manages to come up with a natural tension between form and content as he did so well in 'Festen'. There! I did it, after all, I couldn't help to compare this to my favourite Vinterber movie. Shame on me.
Review of It's All About Love
