A freebie film off the Internet. Part of a trilogy directed by Per Fly portraying the upper, middle, and under strata's of Danish society. I saw The Inheritance - the upper strata part – back in May 2008; it was – like this is – competent Sunday evening TV drama (more BBC2 than 1) Acceptable misery entertainment.
Jesper Christensen as street bench alkie Kai gives good grumpy and gruff; actually, its more than grumpy and gruff, its downright sh-tty horrible. All that swigging and puking up, and stinking beer sweat – not attractive; disillusioned hopeless weary woeness is pitched the right side of ugly: Kai is gonna drink himself to death – and you can all fcuk off! I work with park bench alkies; they swing erratically from cynical self-loathing to sentimental self-pity on a daily basis; depends on what state of boozy obliteration they're in or out of – so this gritty portrayal is pretty good as far as pretty bad is concerned. The drunken slide into down and out destitution is relentless, becomes inevitable.
Problem with this film is it doesn't have the guts to stay still - and hopeless – with the drunks on the park bench. It wants to move into movie melodrama all too readily. The whole father/daughter redemption story is too neatly plotted and packaged to be street credible "realism". Too much of what happens gets to feel conveniently contrived so as to forward the narrative as conventional cinematic drama, while running away - scared – smack into a redemptive "dying in daughters arms" ending. This guy Kai has done 19 years of alcohol abuse. He deserted – after beating her up – his wife and little daughter. He's an ugly self loathing ass-hole. He doesn't deserve redemptive endings. Get real! I would have dropped all the daughter drama. Stay on the bench. Get right in the "earth ass-hole" these bench alkies are stuck in. And mine their assholes for worms of dirty gold. But i suppose to do that you'd need Samuel Beckett writing the screenplay.
This film wants to leave the ass-hole its poking into before it gets too disgustingly sh-tty. We're too amused by distractions like "jazz popped trumpet music" and an eccentric character who seems to have wandered in lost from a Mike Leigh film "overeaten of Soren Kierkegaard" (to quote a Danish reviewer)
Jesper Christensen as street bench alkie Kai gives good grumpy and gruff; actually, its more than grumpy and gruff, its downright sh-tty horrible. All that swigging and puking up, and stinking beer sweat – not attractive; disillusioned hopeless weary woeness is pitched the right side of ugly: Kai is gonna drink himself to death – and you can all fcuk off! I work with park bench alkies; they swing erratically from cynical self-loathing to sentimental self-pity on a daily basis; depends on what state of boozy obliteration they're in or out of – so this gritty portrayal is pretty good as far as pretty bad is concerned. The drunken slide into down and out destitution is relentless, becomes inevitable.
Problem with this film is it doesn't have the guts to stay still - and hopeless – with the drunks on the park bench. It wants to move into movie melodrama all too readily. The whole father/daughter redemption story is too neatly plotted and packaged to be street credible "realism". Too much of what happens gets to feel conveniently contrived so as to forward the narrative as conventional cinematic drama, while running away - scared – smack into a redemptive "dying in daughters arms" ending. This guy Kai has done 19 years of alcohol abuse. He deserted – after beating her up – his wife and little daughter. He's an ugly self loathing ass-hole. He doesn't deserve redemptive endings. Get real! I would have dropped all the daughter drama. Stay on the bench. Get right in the "earth ass-hole" these bench alkies are stuck in. And mine their assholes for worms of dirty gold. But i suppose to do that you'd need Samuel Beckett writing the screenplay.
This film wants to leave the ass-hole its poking into before it gets too disgustingly sh-tty. We're too amused by distractions like "jazz popped trumpet music" and an eccentric character who seems to have wandered in lost from a Mike Leigh film "overeaten of Soren Kierkegaard" (to quote a Danish reviewer)