Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Btexxamar I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

jm10701 As soon as a movie starts, I start thinking about how I'm going to review it. For the first 40 minutes, I thought I was going to throw this movie in the gutter where it belonged when I reviewed it, because for all that time there's practically nothing but revolting Nazi crap. It's very, very hard to sit through. The first scene is the violent beating of a cruising gay man by a skinhead who had come on to him and told him how beautiful he was before calling out his gang to beat and kick the guy to a pulp (an incident that re-enters the story significantly near the end).After that are long scenes of the ugly Nazis (the men are physically as well as morally ugly) spewing their toxic garbage into my ears where it was not welcome. But then... ah, then... at about the 41-minute mark, Lars and Jimmy start looking at each other in a new way, and EVERYTHING changes. The first 40 minutes of hateful garbage are well worth suffering through to get to that exquisite tenderness and passion.Thure Lindhardt as Lars is a gentle, enormously attractive beauty from his first scene to his last, but the character is pretty flat: steady and strong but not very interesting. David Dencik got the meaty role in Jimmy, and he pulls it off brilliantly. He is completely believable both as the bitter, arrogant, brutal Nazi homophobe and as the sweet, gentle, deeply vulnerable and passionate man who eventually emerges from that hateful shell. If the first third of the movie had not been so revolting, Jimmy's emergence from that horrible world would not have been so marvelous. And it IS marvelous, some of the loveliest acting I have ever seen.Raw, naked, totally defenseless vulnerability is something rarely seen in movies, particularly from male actors. In fact the ONLY previous example that comes to mind is Jane Fonda fairly early in her career - in Klute and even more powerfully earlier in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Fonda, in both those roles, had been beaten down by a cruel system she was helpless against; but Dencik is breaking out - against his own will - from within an even more brutal system in which he has been on top and on which he has been completely dependent for his identity.He discovers that he's just like the guys he's been attacking, and that discovery shatters him. It shatters him, but it finally begins to set him free to be himself for the first time. It's a very great performance that makes an otherwise mediocre movie (deeply offensive when it's not simply unbelievable) well worth watching. The transformation just in his eyes is astonishing. All eight stars are for him.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU This is a love affair between two men that met accidentally but the object of the film is gay-bashing in Denmark in general, and in extreme right Nazi movements in particular. The anti-gay position of Denmark (and its armed forces) is not explained just as if it were "natural", "organic" and "bio-degradable". But the film shows how absurd the anti-gay position of the Nazi movement is.It is for these swastika men a fundamental position because you cannot be a man and be gay at the same time. Gay men don't exist. They are not natural. They have to be naturalized back to nature with a good beating, if not simply reduced to natural vegetative non-life, generally known as death. But they don't kill. They inflict some fatal wounds so that the person will surely die in a lot of suffering and over a long period of time.That's purely barbaric and the film shows it so well that it becomes insolent, as if we were too dumb to know it.At the same time the brother of the older member, Jimmy, of the group who falls in love with the newcomer Lars is shown as disturbed: drugs, suicide, all the symptoms of a young man who was violated, brutalized and probably sexually assaulted by a member of his family, probably his elder brother, Jimmy himself, is not clearly diagnosed as being such a victim which would explain why he got his vengeance against his brother by telling the chief of the group like a fink he is about the love affair that Jimmy is having with Lars.The logic of this character is obvious but it is in no way clearly said, and this younger brother sitting next to the hospital bed of his elder brother who is in a coma and will probably never come back, and all that because he, the younger brother, spread the good news of his liaison with Lars, is pitiful and pathetic and his walking out when Lars arrives with some glances exchanged as if there were some communication meaning something we cannot know but imagine like "See what you did. Am I ever going to forgive you?" etc. And Lars as well as the fink of a younger brother could say that equally.But once again all that is not explicitly said or expressed and that is frustrating. The wider meaning that could concern human nature itself and human society as a whole is made ghostlike and the only clear message is the anti-Nazi manifesto the film is. But to say that "Pakis cost us billions of kronen whereas a bullet only cost a few cents" is rather superficial to build a plot and a psychologically sound character.But the shallowest part of the film is the love between Lars and Jimmy because it is shown as practically instantaneous, with no tenderness, no spiritual dimension, purely physical, one kiss and off we are, and emotional, contact in forced solitude, to the verge of brutality. That type of love exists for sure but it is not very eloquent to our minds in the context it is situated in, a neo-Nazi party in Denmark. In fact the Muslim Pakistanis they hate so much are not one iota different on that point. They should join forces to liberate the world of "faggots" but it works in the worst possible way since it is Jimmy who provokes the Pakistanis and Lars who saves him when he is on the point of being severely mashed down by pure numerical superiority. And during that time the local boss of the Nazi group is preventing the other members from rescuing Jimmy.That is so bleak that it leaves me dubious as for any real meaning in that film that becomes a string of grotesque vignettes and burlesque cameos on a tragic subject that is hardly seriously touched.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

lasttimeisaw A gay romance happening inside a Danish Neo-Nazi clique, what a crack idea! The film intriguingly narrates a compassionate experience of a former Danish serviceman Lars (Thure Lindhardt, the winsome blond from ANGELS & DEMONS 2009), whose passionate courtship with Jimmy (superbly played by David Dencik from A SOAP 2006, another 8/10 film from Denmark, a frenzy macho role sheerly contrasts with his transsexual image in the latter film), who is the fervent skinhead among a gay-bashing Neo-Nazi group. (Speaking of Nazism, my downright ignorance thwart me from the knowledge of how exact the film tackles with the thorny issue, judging by the film, it is basically understated I suppose). There are abundant cinematic conflicts in the plot, although predictable, but applied deftly (by a poignant performance from the two leads and a fine-tuned hand-held camera movement, it never cease trembling). An exemplary northern Europe topography and scenario imbues an obscure hue of cruelty and restlessness.The performances are solid (Morten Holst, who plays Jimmy's younger brother, might be a tad histrionic), both the chemistry between two lead actors and the impending tragedy are brewed perfectly on time and the sex scenes are aesthetically beguiling. More encouraging, the film doesn't take either stand to beautify or disparage the Neo-Nazi image, while love happens everywhere, so does gay love. An ambiguous deus ex machina aptly averts any cliché in the over-exploited gay-theme melodrama sub-genre although melodramatic might not be a meritorious adjective for a film under the background of a sternly violent context, but also demystifies the remotely tangible target to a humane understanding and transmits a positive message to the preconception-ridden society.

adamsoch-1 ... or was it the other way around? Not in this well written and acted film BROTHERHOOD, where two natural events are not tolerated just because THEY told them so, globalization and honest feelings. The beautiful saying "live and let live" has no meaning for so many in this ever growing and shifting global society or the sadistic skinheads and members of this Danish brotherhood. Gone are the days when countries were separated by well-guarded borders or when you were supposed to be whatever your religion, family or community wanted you to be. It is a lost cause, but THEY still fight it with venom like hate and gruesome violence. At first you are led to believe that the title of the film is referring to the group where a premium membership is difficult to get, but latter you discover the true meaning of brotherhood or betrayed brotherhood. There were moments during the film when I forgot to respire, I forgot where I am or what time it was, finding myself wanting to turn away from the screen for a second hoping to protect myself from the violent blows or the delightfully true moments of beauty and love of the two protagonist. Repressing your feeling is possible only for a short period of time and we all do this on a regular basis, but when it come down to our biological necessity, what we call LOVE, sooner or latter it will erupt, explode, gush out and NOT gently but with dire consequences. Brotherhood is an important film on so many levels for individuals and society in general especially for those living with "stuck in ancient times" mentality. Humankind evolves with lightning speed and "some" people should evolve with it, but unfortunately dogma, personal feelings, opinions are huge obstacles, creating violence and unnecessary hurt. For me this great film has an important message: Let people love and be true to themselves because it has nothing to do with you or the ills of the world and if you oppose this natural feeling, YOU are an obstacle to humanity and the beautiful progression nature created for us to "live life" as it should be lived.