After the Wedding (2006)
After the Wedding (2006) 8/10
Nominated for the best foreign language film in the 2007 Oscars, After the Wedding is a classic melodrama from Denmark which works because of a brilliant cast and excellent directing. Director Susanne Bier emerges as an immensely talented female director who knows how to lift the script beyond its cliched confines. Under a lesser director, this film could easily be a soppy, predictable melodrama, the kind you often see on TV. But under Bier’s masterful direction, she crafts characters who are compelling, flawed and utterly fascinating. And major credit goes to its fine ensemble cast. Its rare to find a ensemble cast where there is literally no weak link and every cast member pulls their weight, but i was simply charmed by the memorable performance by the cast. Mads Mikkelsen , looking like a Dannish version of Viggo Mortenson plays the character Jacob and has mastered the art of looking coolly aloof. Stine Fischer Christensen, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Rolf Lassgård are foreign names to me. But they are incredibly talented and give this film much of its dramatic weight. After the Wedding (Efter brylluppet) may be a melodrama, but its melodrama of the finest kind.
“AFTER THE WEDDING’S anguished portrait of family, charity, and mortality peels back layers in the characters that defy their easy categorization.”- Pfeiffer
“This is a cast from paradise.”- Tony Medley
