Six characters in a Danish suburb -- a brand-new pastor, a hotel clerk, a restaurant manager, a hairdresser, a bakery employee, and a waitress -- struggle with their lives and difficulties but are brought together in a beginning Italian conversation class (though one of them is herself Italian!), and eventually make a trip to Venice together. This Danish film, made in 2000 but released in the US only in the winter of 2001-02, is another Dogme 95 release (no artificial lighting, all hand-held camera work, no special effects, etc.). It's a comedy-drama, but certainly not a screwball comedy. There are dark elements, such as alcoholism, several deaths that occur early in the film, and a spouse's suicide shortly before the story begins; the laughs are small and hard-earned at first, but sweet, and all's well that ends delightfully well. Perhaps this one will work best in video form: the combination of hand-held camera and having to read extensive subtitles gave me a bit of a headache for the first part, but the story and its characters' relationships became so engrossing that it eventually didn't matter. A nuanced charmer, with much emotional chiarosuro.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
