Film: Just Another Love Story
Photo: Henrik Saxgren
Ole Bornedal's Just Another Love Story takes viewers both on a trip to Denmark, charcoal-hued and windy, and on a dark, romantic Cyclone ride. Bornedal, one of the most internationally recognized Danish directors, who had his breakthrough with Nightwatch, calls it "a bloody drama about love."
Whether you agree with Bornedal's description or not, there's no denying Just Another Love Story is modern film noir: Moral ambiguity? Check. Sexual motivation? Check. Style? Check, check, check. The New York Times's Stephen Holden describes the film as a "jumpy, high-adrenaline thriller" that "administers a stinging slap in the face to the popular notion of Denmark as one of the happiest places on earth." True, "cold, dreary, unspectacular" Denmark is the happiest place in the world (ABC News). Just check the World Map of Happiness. The film, though, is more Hamlet than happy happy joy joy; it's a morbid lens on a stark landscape that paints the country slate gray instead of silver. And like smoky flames curling and rising from disaster, you have to keep watching it to see if the dust eventually settles.
Here's the basic storyline: Jonas seems happy enough with his wife and two kids. And he should be happy--there's still spice in the marriage, his children are beautiful, he's got close friends--but you get the sense that something is missing. After he inadvertently causes Julia, a stranger, to crash her car, his relationship with her fills that blank. Julia starts off a bandaged coma victim, and Jonas is with her as she blossoms back into the adventuress she was before the crash, their relationship blossoming along with her--and Jonas growing full-fledged crazy. Is Jonas crazy with love, crazy with escapism, crazy with selfishness? We don't know, but his life looked rosier before all this, and as Julia regains her memory, everything goes sour.
The film opened last week at Cinema Village in New York, the jump-off point for a national roll-out. It hits Chicago February 13, San Francisco later in the month, and Boston and Seattle in March. More bookings should follow in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and other U.S. cities, so keep an eye out.
Further reading:
* Why Is This City Smiling? Adam Sachs catches a case of the grins in Copenhagen
* More of the DT on film: Woody Allen's Barcelona
* Word of Mouth: The buzz worldwide
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