After the Wedding
A multi-millionaire wants to know how much his money can really buy in this drama from Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier. Though born and raised in Denmark, Jacob Peterson (Mads Mikkelsen) has made a life for himself in India, where he runs an orphanage for homeless children. While Jacob cares little for money, raising funds is part of the responsibilities of his position, and when he learns that Jørgan (Rolf Lassgård), a wealthy Danish businessman, is willing to donate four million dollars under the condition that he meet with him in person, Jacob grudgingly hops a flight back home. Once in Denmark, Jørgan insists that Jacob attend the wedding of his daughter the next day; at the celebration he meets Jørgan's wife, Helene (Sidse Babett Knudsen), whom he recognizes as someone he knew many years ago. As Jacob finds himself revisiting a past he would prefer to forget, he discovers that Jørgan has an ulterior motive for bringing him to Denmark -- the wealthy man is in poor health, and while the donation will help ease some of his guilt over a life of avarice, he's also looking for someone to take over as Helene's husband after he dies. Efter Brylluppet (aka After the Wedding) received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. more..
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgård, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Stine Fischer Christensen, Christian Tafdrup
One of the best films to open in the Bay Area in 2007.
Talented filmmaker Susanne Bier (Brothers), armed with an outstanding compositional sense, keeps control over the storms of melodrama that swirl in this rich weepie.
A thrilling -- and harrowing, and beautiful -- celebration of the unpredictability of life.
After the Wedding would never pretend to have any answers, but in hands this skilled the act of exploration itself couldn't be more illuminating, or more dramatic.
Wedding has enough coincidences, screamfests, drunken rants and shock revelations to fill a season of "Desperate Housewives," but it comes across as finely textured drama, thanks to the performers, who make their characters so persuasive and three-dimensional, we're too mesmerized to care about the story's more overwrought or histrionic passages.
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Academy Awards (2007)
Best Supporting Actress (Bedste kvindelige birolle)
Bodil Awards (2007)
Best Actor
European Film Awards (2006)
Susanne Bier
Festróia - Tróia International Film Festival (2007)
Susanne Bier
Film by the Sea International Film Festival (2006)
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