In the opening moments of this new Danish movie and we see a Scandinavian middle-aged blonde woman and the coast of Sorrento and Pierce Brosnan, there is this decidedly deja vu feeling, but luckily this is not in fact ‘Mamma Mia 2’. And thankfully Mr Brosnan is not called on to sing again. It is however an over-sentimentalized romantic-comedy which although directed by Suzanne Bier (Oscar Winner for ‘In A Better World’) and is peppered with some tart wee moments, has an annoyingly predictable Hollywood-type happy ending. Ida is cancer and chemo free and is just about to throw herself into enjoying life again when she discovers her big lump of a husband Lief in flagranti with much younger Tilde from the Accounts Department at his firm. He storms out and so Ida is left to fly to Italy on her own to attend their only daughter’s wedding.
Astrid is marrying Patrick after a whirlwind three month romance, and they are going to have the ceremony in a delightful villa overlooking Naples Bay. The villa needs some urgent TLC as its been rather neglected by the owner Phillip, Patrick’s father a successful businessman, who has never been back there since his wife died some years ago. Although Phillip too lives in Copenhagen …. he is actually British (I guess getting Mr Brosnan to learn danish was too tall an order).
A distraught Ida has an unfortunate first encounter with a very angry Phillip and they don’t hit it off at all. But then they do …. but that’s later, and it is very obvious from the ‘i hate you’ type conversation that they labour through initially that they are going to end up in bed.
Guests gather for the wedding and they are an odd bunch. Phillip’s sister-in-law who has acted as Patrick’s mother de facto and who has always had the hots for her late sister’s husband; Lief turns up with an uninvited Tilde in her tight fitting ensemble; and then there is the local hired help who are far too intimate with the hosts. And then both father and son change course …. and normally I avoid any spoilers in my reviews but these are so obvious from the start….. Patrick blames the fact that he was only trying to please his Dad by getting married and really he wants to hitch up with the handyman. Dad meanwhile overnight suddenly stops being perpetually angry and is ready for love. With Ida naturally (lest you think that he too was after the hired help).
The only redeeming feature about this muddled lightweight movie (other than the location) is the stunningly sensitive performance by Trine Dyrholm as Ida …. she is dignified and poised even with all the traumas that are heaped on her (and it’s a far different role than the evil Queen she played in last year’s hit ‘A Royal Affair). The fact that there is such a lack of any believable ‘chemistry’ between her and a miscast Mr Brosnan as Phillip is certainly not her fault at all, but it does put a big damper on the whole story. This movie only ended up on my watchlist because of Miss Bier whose resume includes some very impressive movies that really resonated with me. Besides her Oscar Win, she has also helmed ‘After The Wedding’, ‘Brothers’ and ‘Open Hearts’ but on the minus side her foray into making a Hollywood resulted in ‘Things That We Lost In The Fire’ a real mish-mash of a drama that that never caught alight. I much prefer Miss Bier’s output when it is gritty and realistic, and hope now that she has dabbled in some (trite) light relief she will get back to something more meaty again.
P.S. Her next movie ‘Serena’ now in post production could be just that AND it has the benefit of having Jennifer Lawrence & Bradley Cooper in the cast.
★★★★★
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