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Jens-ar
Reviews
Krigsseileren (2022)
One of the best war movies I've seen
One of the best war movies I've seen. I thought I'd seen so many war and catastrophe movies I'd become numb to the emotional drama and could only be stimulated by history lessons and battlefield action but this one gripped me. The storytelling and cinematography was oddly neutral and engaging at the same time, avoiding over the top melodrama and anticlimatically predictable climaxes, sticking to the point over a nonlinear plotline for three hours. The lack of cliche and subtelty made the movie seem lifelike and relevant unlike so many other historical dramas. For instance the way you learned of the sinking of the first crew or the reaction to being dropped in shallow water from the oily survivor. The life and the sadness in every scene made this movie worth watching.
Tonari no Totoro (1988)
Subtle and poetic
Two little girls, Satsuki and Mei, moves into an old house in the Japanese country with their father. Their sick mother is at the hospital. The two kids meet the gentle and flute playing Totoro, a hybrid between a gigantic rodent and a bear. The movie's style is quite different from most Western animations, and only a few Disney movies can hold their own to Tonari no Totoro's amazing and poetic expression. The bus stop scene is brilliant, and so are many other similar scenes where only few words are spoken. Disney animations are often too restless to create an atmosphere like this. Pardoxically the two children are a bit stereotypical at times, but in the end of the movie they become more complex. At this point in the film a cryptic message from the mother's hospital, makes the children suspect that their mother has died. After an intense drama they are being flown to the hospital in Totoro's bizarre cat bus. But it turns out that the mother has only had a cold and that she's going to comeback to them soon. This is, though a foundation for a happy ending, a bit of an anticlimax. I couldn't help but wonder if the movie would be better if the mother was dead from the start of the film. Not that I'm a sadist, but as it is, the children are living a great life in a beautiful place, and when their mother comes back, all is practically well, this would make it seem so perfect, that you don't feel like you have to pity the kids, which makes their attempt in finding comfort in their friendship with Totoro less touching than it could be. If the mother was dead, the movie would probably touch some deeper feelings. But this is only a thought. However, a psychological interpretation could be that the mother really is dying, and Totoro only is a delusion made by the children in their grief. But this would however be too cruel. Perhaps the perfectly happy ending is the best way to end the film, though a sad future awaits the children when they get too old to see Totoro. Though I'm not a big fan of the manga style I must admit that it's masterfully animated, and the imaginative pictures make the movie seem like a beautiful dream.
Fracture (2007)
Never gets exciting
Hopkins is the one good thing in this movie that struggles with a poor script and a clichéd story. He's playing the part as a wealthy old man, Mr. Crawford, who shoots his wife when he finds out she's having an affair. At first it looks like an easy job to prove him guilty of attempted murder - the wife is in coma after the episode - because Crawford admits the murder to an officer and is proved to have been in the house during the crime. A young lawyer, Beachum (Gosling), leads the case as his last job before he changes work place, but slowly Crawford reveals that he's in control of things, his confession is declared invalid and the police soon run out of evidence. The story is expectable from the first scene, and the weak climax at last isn't especially thrilling. All in all the plot seems like a so-so crime novel that could have been a short Hitchcock movie. Only, Hitchcock knew how to create an atmosphere, which unfortunately isn't the case here
Flammen & Citronen (2008)
A bit of a disappointment
Flammen ("The Flame" because of his red hair) and Citronen (Worked for Citroën) are two of the most legendary figures in Denmark during the war, where they were members of the Danish resistance group Holger Danske, participating in spectacular sabotage actions and liquidating stitches. The movie is the most expensive Danish movie ever, and the 10 million $ budget also helps creating nice action scenes when the pair has showdowns with Gestapo officers. However, the movie seems to be made without inspiration. Even though the intrigues in the grey zone of contacts and unreliable agents and messages are well written, the story never gets really gripping or intense. It would have made the movie better if the casting had been done more thoughtfully. Thure Lindhardt lacks charisma as the hardcore red-haired main person, and Mads Mikkelsen turns Citronen into a clone of all other characters he's played. Their nemesis, Gestapo leader Hoffmann, is played well by Christian Berkel (the bald doctor from Der Untergang), as well as many other supporting roles are satisfactorily played. Besides, the movie isn't filmed in Copenhagen, where the story takes place, which makes the atmosphere even less authentic. Apart from that the plot works o.k, but the movie never catches the viewer's feelings. It's a fascinating subject, and it's therefore a disappointment that the movie isn't more moving than this