ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

nathanleebush I'm shocked by the high user and critic ratings for this film. Every choice was confused. The hyper kinetic camera movement with documentary stylings and no lighting like a Dogme 95 film had no relationship to the Days of Our Lives plot twists and overwrought acting and dialogue. I think this got the over-inflated "international rating," where critics elevate mediocre foreign films because, let's be honest, how many great movies are coming out of Denmark these days? The melodrama was effective, in that it wrought emotion, but each plot twist felt arbitrary and absurd, and the central motivation of the principal figure didn't make sense. Certain scenes felt totally out of place, and should have been cut. And bookending the film in India made about zero sense, as very little of the film's story took place there.

Lucas Versantvoort Efter brylluppet (After the Wedding) was directed by Susanne Bier who had directed Brødre (Brothers) two years earlier and would go on to direct the Academy Award-winning Hævnen (In a Better World). After the Wedding is all about human beings reacting to the dramatic circumstances around them. If that sounds like 99% of all films ever made, you're probably right, but as with many other Danish films, there is a certain affinity with human drama and 'realism' present here that can often found to be lacking in Hollywood dramas. Here, it definitely ups the relatable human drama factor, but can also occasionally make the film feel a bit like watching a soap opera.After the Wedding is centered on a number of characters. Indeed, there is no real main character which is a strength of the film, but also a weakness. We begin in an orphanage in India where Jacob (played by the ever understated Mads Mikkelsen) works. He works hard to care for the children there and has a particularly close friendship with Pramod. However, there are money troubles. Then, out of nowhere, he is told that a company in Denmark is willing to provide him a donation if he is willing to close the deal himself in Denmark personally. This annoys Jacob as he dislikes the all too comfortable Western way of life. He agrees however, thinking he'll be back in India before he knows it. He says goodbye to Pramod, goes to Denmark only to find out that the CEO, Jørgen, is still on the fence whether he'll donate the money or not. This surprises Jacob. Jørgen however invites him to his daughter's wedding as if nothing's wrong. There he discovers in a tense scene that Jørgen's daughter might be his. He thus realizes he was brought here on purpose by Jørgen and his wife, Helene (who is also Jacob's former girlfriend), to reunite him with his daughter. This triggers an array of wonderfully dramatic confrontations where, among other things, Jacob must decide whether to stay with his 'real' family in Denmark – even though he's never spoken to his daughter – or return to Pramod in India with whom he is so close he might as well be family. The film is thus basically interested in the definition of family. The scenes where the daughter is torn between her strange, newfound feelings for her 'real' father and her long-established feelings for the 'father' she's known all her life are good examples of how After the Wedding explores this theme.Like I said, the main appeal of this film are the scenes where two or more characters talk with or confront each other. There is one between Jørgen and his 'daughter', one between Jacob and Helene, etc. These scenes where seemingly 'real' characters react to one another feel very real and intense and it is these scenes that form the core of the film and the main reason why you should watch it. That said, it's precisely these scenes that – despite the acting quality displayed by the cast – can make the film feel like a soap opera, one melodramatic scene after the other. One scene in particular featuring Jørgen suffers from this.I also had some problems plot-wise. Spoilers ahead. Because Jacob goes to Denmark and becomes increasingly conflicted whether or not he should stay in Denmark or go back to India and Pramod, I got the impression that whatever decision he makes will have major consequences as to how other characters will think of him. How would his daughter feel if he went back to India? Also, staying in Denmark would devastate Pramod. This, combined with the film's penchant for drama, made me believe tragedy would be in store for me. In the end, however, this is all resolved surprisingly easy, so much so that it makes me wonder if the film laid enough of the groundwork that it deserves its 'happy ending'. Jacob stays in Demark and with the help of Jørgen's money financially supports his orphanage in India where he meets Pramod again. Jacob invites him to live with him in Denmark, but Pramod refuses since Jacob used to rail against the easy, Westernized way of life. And then, the film ends….what? This brings me back to how the film can sometimes feel like a soap opera. Yes, there are wonderful and satisfying dramatic scenes, but in the end, what's the point the film is trying to get across? To show that one's 'real' family (your own blood) is more important in one's life than one's other 'family' (Pramod)? Pramod reminding Jacob of his old ways of thinking seems to suggest a political, Anti-Western point of view, but the rest of the film doesn't support this. Questions, questions… The anti-climax doesn't help matters either. In the end, the film can feel like merely a collection of dramatic scenes that resolve themselves in the end without a lot of collateral damage. Then again, when the drama is as involving as seen here, these criticisms can easily be cast aside.

Rebecca Lynn After the Wedding: An Unexpectedly Touching Familial Drama "Every acquaintance, every friend, every person who has a place in your heart, it is the time with them that really means something. Nothing else matters". These words, spoken by the masterfully played Jørgen (Rolf Lassgård), sum up the main message of the Danish, Oscar nominated film, After the Wedding. In the hands of a director less skilled than Susanne Bier, After the Wedding may come across as an overblown, soap opera-like melodrama. Instead, Bier uses these cutting emotional moments to develop her characters and their motivations. After the Wedding explores the relationships between wealth and poverty, what it means to be a family, and the individual's role in a larger picture.The film opens with a stoic as ever Mads Mikkelson playing Jacob, the closed off but compassionate manager of an Indian orphanage. Jacob must face the grim reality that without proper funding, his beloved orphanage will close, and the only way to secure the money is for Jacob to travel back to Denmark to confer with a potential benefactor, Jørgen Lennart Hannson. Jørgen promises to consider funding the project–but only if Jacob agrees to attend his daughter's wedding the next day. Why did Jacob leave Denmark 20 years ago? Why is Jørgen orchestrating this event? "Too much fits together too well," comments Jørgen's wife (and as we soon find out, Jacob's ex-lover). The audience is inclined to agree. But what follows is a touching exploration of familial ties.The initial scenes of Copenhagen provide a stark juxtaposition between Denmark's wealth and the abject poverty of Mumbai (all of the orphans could live comfortably in Jacob's hotel room). The audience instinctively sides with Jacob and his feelings of disgust with his own country. The bright colors of the city contrast with the poverty in which most of the residents live. But despite their lack of wealth, the community cares deeply for its members. Jacob has settled into a niche here, formed a cobbled together family with the young orphan Pramod, who he has raised since birth.Initially, Jacob is loath to leave the warm family he has created, believing his home country to be full of disinterested and disingenuous people ("Is it because the houses are far apart that the people are far apart?" Pramod asks Jacob before he leaves). Things become far more muddled when Jacob discovers that he isn't as alone in Denmark as he thought, and the wedding to which he was invited is that of the daughter he never knew existed. But as Jacob begins to embrace his new family, his personal ties to India began to disintegrate. Perhaps most significant is when Jacob, instead of returning to Mumbai by Pramod's birthday as he promised, spends the time in Copenhagen, getting to know his biological daughter, Anna (a moment when they flip through her old photo album together is especially touching).Jørgen, the man that Jacob instinctively despised, was the driving force that brought him and Anna together. Jørgen is at once dominant, manipulative, and as likable as he is infuriating. As the film progresses and we understand his motives, we began to sympathize more and more with him. Jørgen's character raises the question of how much money can buy. Can a person with money and ideals exist? "I'm buying remission for my sins," Jørgen says of his bargain with Jacob, a bargain that would force Jacob to remain in Denmark to serve as the patriarch of Jørgen's family. Though Jacob initially refuses, he begins to question his decision, especially when Anna finds herself lost and alone after her new husband cheats on her.What is more important to a cause, a man, or his money? At one point, Jacob is even directly asked: "think of how many you could help, won't you sell yourself for that?" Ultimately, he does, and discovers that he is somewhat dispensable. Upon returning to India, Jacob invites Pramod to return with him to Denmark, but Pramod refuses. Things are looking up for the orphanage, and remaining in the now well functioning institution with all of his friends means more to him than beginning a new life with Jacob somewhere else.My one complaint is that India seems to play more of a vibrant and exotic backdrop in the film more than anything more substantial. As soon as Jacob arrives in Denmark, it fades into the distance, save for the occasional glimpse of a sad eyed child on the video Jacob brought with him. A place that a person spent 20 years of their life building wouldn't disappear so easily. If the film had a few more scenes exploring the complexity of Jacob's cognitive dissonance and his ties to India, it would pack an even larger emotional punch.

dushyant chaturvedi A Danish manager of an orphanage in India goes back home to find the funds for his project. There he discovers a truth which changes his live and that of others around him. This was nominated in the best foreign movie category in 2007 wherein it lost to the Counterfeiters, a much superior film. The film is well made and brilliantly acted. But the script does not offer anything shattering which is what its synopsis on IMDb promises. The viewers of Hindi movies have seen countless films like this although the story hasn't been lifted so far to make an "inspired" copy. There is only one scene wherein one of the lead characters reacts about their impending death which has not been used by Hindi cinema. Here, everybody becomes stoic and heroic after learning about their impending death. There, people shout and question about the logic of it all. 3 out of 5 for this. the pacing of the movie is appropriate and it never drags along. It is the very content itself which does not offer anything new to chew on.