Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

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

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

thecatcanwait 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)

Thomas Here's a comment to this Norwegian Øysten guy! To me it sounds more like you have a problem with Danes in general and are just using the movie as an excuse to utter some very stupid remarks about Danish movies. You sound like a poor fellow with a self esteem problem. It's not our problem that Norway is not exactly the capital of film making right now. During the last 10 years or so Danish films have had an impressively high level of quality. Sure, there have been some not very good and some very bad movies, but the general level is high. If you take a look at the over-exposed American movies it's only a low fraction of those that are even worth mentioning and yet they are still dominating the cinemas everywhere, also in Denmark. Of course, the success of Danish films has made the fraction of American movies decrease a bit which is a very positive thing. In the 80's we excelled in extremely bad comedies so the last 10 years have been a giant leap forward. You can say what you want about the Dogma95 concept but it resulted in a series of good movies and a lot of fruitful discussions about film making in general. Now, Dogma95 has seized to exist (it was only intended to be officially "running" for 10 years) which is probably also a good thing because otherwise the concept could end up as a parody of itself. Dogma95 caused a little stir in the movie industry and rightfully deserves a note in movie history. It's like Lars Von Trier himself: You can love or hate him, but you cannot possibly ignore him.

Jan Knus The Bench gives a no nonsense depiction of the way of alcohol. The road to early death. From an experienced and professional point of view the way is not shown 'alco-holistic' —in surround angles with context feedback from soul to skin—but it is only scattered pictures from the surface: the face of the drinking man, his physical and verbal spasms, his loneliness among alcoholic peers, his mighty thirst, his negative emotions of anger, self hatred, cynicism, and then the sudden rebound of long forgotten family love.From the behavioristic technique of telling the story the audience might wonder what road of excess this man has wandered and why it did not lead to the palace of wisdom.But the film itself doesn't take at stand or offers a story or history of the man and his alcohol. The fixed point of view and the main character is—the Bench. So the story can not move and will not develop. It is sitting on the bench. The love drop to this dying life is only a blurb before the long goodbye. Good setting, good sitting, good acting. Good row of still pictures.Thus, though careful in its objective artistry —excactly why it is not 'cinéma-vérité'—the film is sentimental and deterministic. No source. No lesson. No hope. No change. In great art there is always hope. Especially in tragedy. Where you can track back and learn 'why?' In life it is karma. In literature poetic justice. This is also cinematic. Please the gods. Change the game.

libertyvalance We've all of us seen them: the alcoholics wasting their lives sitting on our cities' benches. What we don't see is the drama behind the alcohol. What struck me while watching Baenken is that it is all so believable and therefore the more painful to watch. The story of this film becomes less important than the leading character's death wish. His cynical attitude towards life and suicidal drinking habits are what sticks in one's mind.Jesper Christensen is masterful in portraying the misery, the shame and hopelessness that go with alcoholism. The drinking bout in which he cries while lying wounded in his apartment is gut wrenching to watch.Not an easy film to watch but definitely worthwhile if one has the stomach for it.