PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

WakenPayne I haven't seen a movie by Suzanne Bier for about 3 or 4 years. from what I remembered Brothers was a very good movie of a shell-shocked veteran forced to kill another for his escape. This movie is one that embarrassingly sat on my shelf for a year or so on end. I consider this unfortunate because this is actually pretty good, even if it's a completely different type of drama movie.The plot is a little difficult to explain. There are 2 kids from different backgrounds, Christian and Elias. Elias' parents are getting a divorce and his father is usually an absent doctor treating people in war zones and his mother is the same but closer to home. Christian's mother recently died of leukemia and has to move from London to a Danish town (I say this because I seriously don't know if it was brought up in the movie) and they meet and through events unfolding of these 2 children, while giving focus on their families as well talks about morality and choice.The best thing about this movie is how they handle the morality and choice. First of all, it wastes no time to show "What would happen if instead this happened" it shows what happened and that was that, and I also liked how the characters while doing morally grey things are still understandable, if not likable. I mean Christian is shown seeing what kind of effect his mother's death had on him and how he sees his father as seemingly uncaring leading him to do horrible stuff like blow up a guy's car for a minor at best incident, that and I also liked how the movie tied in that with Elias' father having to treat people just in car explosions.I really have to press on because I can talk for at least another paragraph on what this movie is doing in terms of story and doing it right. The acting is fantastic. I mean the kid that plays Christian is really good as well as Ulrich Thomsen (although his performance in Brothers is better) and Mikael Persbrandt. Everyone does good and I don't think there is a single moment that feels stiff from the actors.Other good things? Well the cinematography is quite striking and beautiful at times and each of these characters feel real. If there is any complaint is that bits and pieces do feel a bit overlong and there's a plot thread that takes up a good part of the second act of the movie and while I liked seeing where it ended, in the middle of the plot thread there were many moments where I was like "We're STILL on it?!" My point is that at the beginning I didn't feel the need of why this movie needed to focus on it until the end.I'd say that Suzanne Bier is going to be a director I will look out for in the future because I haven't seen a single movie of hers so far that wasn't a satisfactory experience. I have been drifting away from drama movies recently but I'm going to say that this movie put me back into the genre. I'd say watch it because while it does talk about morality and choice it isn't edited in a way that shows other outcomes if they did it differently but it's not brought up in the dialogue that often but even then when the parents talk about bullying and how the kids react to it is done in a way that isn't just out of nowhere. I'd say check it out.

David Roberts I got the opportunity to watch this film last night as part of my annual film club and had read the previous reviews so anticipated seeing it.Like some of the reviewers on here, I agree that it is filmed beautifully and the location and set are a great backdrop to the deep and thoughtful narrative encapsulating the audience.Both boys in the film absolutely steal the show and provide a very convincing performance where you sincerely believe they are both within the 'pact' together and that their friendship is solely based on vengeance - until the very end, when Christian admits that the very core of his demand for payback was remorse for his mother's battle with cancer (and repressing feelings toward his Dad).I agree with a few people on here in which the Africa plot was a little bit hard to distinguish against the main plot line as I believe they are trying to run both stories parallel but we don't spend enough time developing characterisation for the African's lives and their wives who had been targeted. Rather, our minds are more set on deciphering the boys relationship and where it's going to go next - the film would have been just as good (if not a little better) without it.Also, I couldn't help but think that towards the end of the film, it could have been wrapped up a bit quicker than what it did - whilst the landscape shots / and the birds in the sky do provide us with a slight metaphor about the beauty of life, I felt that they did get a little tedious to the end. Don't get me wrong, when used correctly this sort of thing can have a very strong impact, but in this instance I believe we just needed a conclusion to settle the story.All in all, a great film, challenging everyday emotions and morals, with a great cast who execute the film perfectly. Take out a few scenes and this would have been one for the vaults.

rousep-944-647970 Susanne Bier's Hævnen (In a Better World), similar in style to her 2006 film, After the Wedding, is a drama with elements of suspense; the film takes place in both the barren, beautiful desert landscape of Africa and the lush, green, Danish terrain. Bier juxtaposes the scenery while paralleling the situations and relationships experienced in both settings. The film discusses the issues of what is right, what is wrong, and what is legal; the choice between violence and compassion; the relationships between parent and child, husband and wife, and childhood friends. Morality and mortality occupy the better part of the film, with little if any humor to diffuse the nearly constant tension. Bier creates a tragedy that nearly reaches Grecian proportions, but manages to scale it back just at the end, leaving an implausibly happy conclusion. The film begins in Africa. We meet Anton, a Swedish physician who works in a village in an unidentified African nation where the community is constantly terrorized by a faction of violent rebels and war mongers. The terrorist leader is called 'The Big Man;' his modus operandi is to mutilate the genitalia of young women and girls in the village, merely out of sick curiosity. His group commits a series of atrocities that Anton and his medical assistants are forced to face. Following this scene, we see a young boy giving a eulogy; he rejects his father's embraces and words of comfort, and generally wanders around impassively. The two move in to a new home, and the boy, Christian, takes the smallest room farthest from his remaining parent. At this point, Bier's almost documentary style filming becomes apparent. The camera, evidently hand-held, shakily zooms in as it cross-cuts from son to father in a stilted conversation that leaves them both isolated and despondent. Following this, Christian's father takes him to his new school; as Christian removes his bag from the trunk of the care, he notices a boy attempting to walk through a pack of adolescent thugs bent on making life miserable for what appears to be their usual victim. The boy, Elias, is a Swede, whom his peers not-so-fondly refer to as 'Rate Face,' due to his overbite. But it becomes apparent that he is largely despised not for his face but for his nationality. He is an outsider; Christian is something of an outsider, himself – often alone and very much embittered after his mother's passing. Watching the boy relentlessly attacked, Christian steps in to protect Elias only to be attacked himself. From then on, the two boys bond in shared experiences of violence and vengeance; furthermore, Elias is the son of Anton, the physician; his parents are separated due to his father's infidelity, and Elias lives with his mother and younger brother. Issues of morality begin to take shape, as we come to see the disparate characters within the two boys and Anton emerge. Elias appears to take after his father, Anton, unwilling to take part in confrontation, particularly of the more violent sort. Violence, Anton argues, does not guarantee you a victory. Sweet and unsure, Elias is simply not a violent character and is easily bullied and cowed. Christian, in contrast, has an obsession with death and a seemingly insatiable desire for violence and revenge. He attacks without hesitation. His father, whom he blames for the death of his mother (a victim of brain cancer) is often the victim of Christian's assaults. Christian doesn't have patience for passive acceptance: "I can't be bothered with people who give up!" He seems to make it his mission to turn passive Elias into the angry, aggressive boy he himself has become. Violence ensues. The law comes in to play. The boys protect each other; the parents try to encourage honesty and discourage retribution, while experiencing and exploring the same emotions their children are forced to face. When Anton encounters 'The Big Man' for the first time, he must decide what is "right," what is compassionate, what is deserved. Elias must make the same decisions facing his bullies and even his friend, Christian. And Christian must make these decisions facing the world – the ultimate bully, which stole his mother from him.I found this film compelling in many respects. I felt the relationship between the two boys was thoroughly explored and well-portrayed. The relationship between Anton and his wife, Elias's mother, is never fully developed, and the conclusion to their conflict seems tacked on and unrealistic, as does the resolution to the village's conflict with 'The Big Man.' Overall, the movie is at times very moving, but leaves something to be desired.

Elise Joyce In a better world explores the relationships between people, and the environment they find themselves in. Though it could be considered a melodrama for the extreme situations and type of events the characters deal with, I consider it a drama because of the heartfelt way it was presented and the incredible acting especially on the children's part.The story focuses mainly on Denmark with clips from Anton's time in the Sudan in stark contrast to the orderly world. Though instead of alienating that storyline, both geographical locations worked very well in tandem. Anton, who seems so in control and composed in Denmark, especially dealing with the mechanic who slaps him on multiple occasions, is finally placed in a similar situation to his young boy, Elias. After doing the right thing, or what objectively doctors would agree to be the right thing, Anton loses his black and white morals and pulls the sickly cruel warlord out of the hospital to be beaten to death by the people.In contrast to his son, Elias, Anton does not need a catalyst. Elias does. The only time Elias really sees his father is when he is in control. Even when Anton is emotional about his marriage, Elias is absent. Elias deals with bulling at school, but has no role model besides his dad, so he does his best to ignore it. He keeps his head down and hopes the bullies go away. Christian is in sharp opposite to Elias, and actually much more like Anton than either character would probably admit. Having just recently lost his mother, who seemed to be his moral compass in the world, his relationship with his father deteriorates. Consequently his idea of what is right and wrong becomes solidified into a very violent brutal code. After being punched in the face, Christian's response is to beat the bully with a bike pump and take a knife to his neck. Elias witnesses the attack, but both boys lie about the knife. Later Christian gives the knife to Elias both as an offer of friendship but also symbolizing Elias taking on Christian's code. Christian's code would fit much better in the Sudanese world Anton finds himself in, than the clean swept streets of Denmark. Elias takes on this code without fully realizing what it is all about. After it is revealed to him that Christian wants to build a bomb to blow up the mechanics car, Elias backs out. But after a failed attempt to speak with his dad, and his mother freaking out because she found the knife, Elias returns to Christian. At one point in the move, just after Anton has saved Christian from suicide he tells him "Sometimes it feels like there is a veil between you and death, but that veil disappears when you loose someone you loved or someone who was close to you, and you see death clearly, for a second, but later the veil returns, and you carry on living. Then things will be alright again." Anton, who experiences this absence of veil on a regular basis with the young women and children he treats understands the turmoil inside of Christian. He understands Christians need to act. Just before this, Anton had thrown the warlord out of the hospital knowing he would be beaten to death, but he had no regret, which I believe is what scared him most. In that moment however, there was no veil between him and death and he was extremely vulnerable. Anton can recognize this in Christian and understand him. Anton is the only one to know Christian has gone to the silo. Anton's understanding of Christian's situation helps Christian accept death as a part of life, and in some small way, reinstall the veil he has been living without.Marianne also has this veil between her and death removed when Elias almost dies. Even though he is all right, the trauma of seeing her son being brought in on a gurney and covered in blood has a profound effect on her. When she sees Christian try to visit her son, she threatens him pushing him up against the wall with her hand on his throat. She tells Christian that he had killed her son before he runs away. Marianne, who is shown, thought the film as an emotional character becomes brutal in this instant. She takes on Christian's code of violence when her son's life is threatened. Her response to Christian after this traumatic event is vital to understanding the turmoil inside Christian and Anton both. All in all this is an incredible look into the effect of death and the complicated but beautiful relationships between people.