Die Tür

A film about coping with grief after the loss of a daughter. It combines drama with mystery; the tunnel into the past can be read as a symbol for the inner psychological labyrinth of a human soul, attempts to come to terms with the past to ease the pain, find a way out of despair.

A movie is a bit darker than I expected. That's not bad, but the last part of the movie is weak. And when a dark episode is weak, that looks like a comedy.

Nevertheless, it's a complex film that is definitely worth watching. Much of what makes "The Door" good can be attributed to Mads Mikkelsen's acting, who offers an impressive character performance. There is a nice depicting of father-daughter relationship.

Within last decades, suspense thrillers have become trendy, and novelists and screenwriters try to create the source materials as mind-twisting and twisted as possible. While focusing on such a turn/twist, they form rather trivial story around it - intentionally or spontaneously. All this applies to the film in question, where the basic story is rather trivial, with keywords as middle-class family, jealousy, adultery... Well, a certain twist provides additional food for thought and even criminal moments, but all this is often difficult to follow, and collisions between someone and his/her younger version via traveling in time is not too compelling. The ending scenes add some action, but the solution is - well, you just shrug your shoulders...

As usual, Mads Mikkelsen gives a strong performance (in German), and there are a few scenes without his presence, but the rest are just good, not more; anyway, admirers of Mikkelsen and/or psychological drama thrillers do probably see more interesting angles.

I enjoyed very much this movie as it was a blend between dark and fantasy. The actors fitted the roles and I liked the game between the "old" and "new" characters. What I liked the most was the fact that the movie was not predictable and had a touch of sensibility, which most movies nowadays tend to miss. As an European movie I recommend it without hesitation and the thriller part was blended perfectly with the dark story. As a minor observation I can add that the story could have gone a bit darker without fading away the sensibility of the father- daughter relationship. In this light, I think the movie can be improved, but the written part on which is based I think succeeds as a story. So if you want a quality movie, with an imaginative story and good actors, this is the right movie for you.

It was quite challenging, being in the states, to find this movie for my collection with decent subtitles. By far it has to be watched in its original German language. Watching the dubbed versions are horrific and kill the movie entirely. Which is a crime because this really is a very interesting and gripping film. That characters are dynamic and plot does manage to have it's twits and turns. The interactions are completely believable and, once again, Mads Mikkelsen turn in a very good performance. Then again he very very very rarely turns in a sub- par performance. Even the child actor in this is good. I can not praise this movie enough. Very high quality, in my opinion, and I'm usually pretty critical of movies. This is the international movie I show my friends when they tell me they want to watch something good from another country.

First I want to say that I have a couple of problems with the plot, some points that have got snagged in my mind and made me wonder, "But why didn't the writer...?". This is one of those times when I wish I had read the book (if there was a book) before watching the film to see if those points arise from the story or how the story was translated into film, but that would obviously defeat the purpose and kill the suspense, so I am better off having seen the film first. Let me say, seeing the film from beginning to end, I forgive those snags.

I will not repeat what the plot summary says. I just want to add that I liked the light world/dark world division, the secrets the supposedly light world hides and perhaps its reflections unto real world. I like the acting in general, the relatively slow pace of a thriller and how that slowness, without actually pacing up, makes the heart pace up and pulls the watcher into it. It's a make believe that you get lost in.

I wonder why there isn't a poster submitted to this web site, why the actors don't have photographs and why there isn't much buzz about the film. I wish the worldwide movie producers made use of a popular web site like this.