Submarino

This was a difficult hour and fifty minutes. All the lives shown were hopeless ones in varying situations of despair and desperation. Nick and his brother (who is never named) struggle with the guilt of the loss of their baby brother whom they looked after for their alcoholic mother. The guilt has twisted their lives and ruined them. Nick is violent and his brother a junkie.

The film shows the quotidian travails of these people matter of factly. It's not asking for sympathy or involvement - these are unpleasant people despite their dreadful pasts. Horrors happen but we are not horrified - the film manages to keep us at arm's length.

I was surprised to find myself weeping at the end. The actors, writer and director had done their jobs and touched me profoundly without my having known it.

Vinterberg has a great grip on playing out human drama. Even though the circumstances are extreme and might feel a tiny bit too much, I never felt the emotions displayed are overplayed or inauthentic. The subtleties of the main actors were very nicely used to convey dread as well as sympathy with the two brothers. All in all it felt like a roller-coaster of redemption-feelings, since with every chapter closed, yielding the actual redemption, another backside opened, inducing jarring unfinishedness, unansweredness, and despair.

I have not read the novel, and barely knew that this was based upon one. This film is like a splinter in your heart, from the first frame to the last. It is pushed to the limit of what we can handle of authentic misery. The social realism, so unrelenting, such rich detail to it, and none of it strains credulity. I was interested in this from when I first heard of it, and when I found out it was by Thomas Vinterberg, the man behind Festen and Dear Wendy, I knew I would watch this. He does wonders with the editing and the cinematography, creating a bleak and mundane(not to be confused with ugly or boring) feel to the visuals, matching the lives of the people we are witnessing and their environment. The camera stays "in the background", letting what we see speak for itself. This has impeccable writing, the events, the dialog(and its delivery), the crowning little touches, it's all excellent. In the end, what truly makes this work beyond belief is the amazing acting from everyone(who are all perfectly cast, as well), and that definitely also goes for the children(who, might I add, are charming and sweet kids, too, including the baby; seriously, can't you count on one hand the infants in movies that are *genuinely* cute? This is one of the only ones, in over a century of the medium), who deliver some of the most astonishing performances seen from ones around that age. Honestly, there is perhaps one single(and entirely understandable) moment that isn't completely convincing, but everything that comes before or since is. In spite of all that we see them do, we sympathize with the credible and well-developed characters. There is a lot of disturbing content, a bit of violence, some sexuality and infrequent strong language in this. I recommend this to anyone mature enough for the subject matter, at least if you can handle it. 10/10

An incredibly intriguing, engaging, emotional and thoughtful drama from Denmark. Intriguing because there is a mystery about the sequence of events. You see the movie from one brother's perspective, initially, and there's a question mark over the whereabouts of the other brother. Then you see the other brothers story, starting a few weeks earlier, and everything starts to fall into place. A very clever plot device.

Engaging and emotional because you feel for the characters. They might not be the most angelic of people, but they are people worth caring about. You are drawn into their characters and relationships, and keep fearing for the worst.

Thoughtful because of how the movie depicts life at its rawest and people at their mot vulnerable, in a very sensitive and intelligent manner.

Not perfect though. The film is a bit rough around the edges. There are some minor character inconsistencies and some small sub- plots are inflated all out of proportion.

Solid performances all round, including one of the better performances you'll see from a child: Gustav Fischer Kjærulff as MArtin.

Great script and direction from Thomas Vinterberg, who I'm sure we'll hear a lot more of in the future. He has already directed one English-language/US-based movie, Dear Wendy, so will not be totally foreign to US audiences. His follow-up to Submarino, The Hunt, received a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination in 2014, and has pushed him further into the limelight. He is bound for great things.

I just had the honour to watch this Danish film at the Berlin Film Festival, and I have the feeling that this could be the winner. I don't want to give anything away, so I will be very general.

What we witness is the compelling story of two brothers divided by life, united by the same tragic event. Both adrift in their sorrow, they run down their self-destructive paths, with little to fight for.

It is no big drama, though. The narration is gentle and respectful, and leaves the audience in the position of not being able to judge the characters for their almost invariably wrong choices, but with a strong feeling of compassion for all of them.

The performances of the whole cast are extremely convincing (including the little boy playing Martin)and Vinterberg's direction - unlike his previous Dogma movies - is at the service of the disturbing realism of the story, working at the same time with a beautiful composition of the scenes (the cinematography, from the very first scenes, helps going straight to the soul). Chapeau.

A special praise has to go to the two actors playing the grown-up brothers. Jakob Cedergren (Nick) in particular makes us see the fragility of his character through his eyes, despite his apparent and imposing physical strength. But the whole cast is really credible all along, both with their physical appearance and their realistic acting.

This movie, with its realistic description of the consequences and the dynamics of substance addiction, destroyed families (what a critic to the Scandinavian society, where alcoholism is a devastating plague) should be screened in every high school.

And, let's say the truth: if you don't find yourself silently weeping in the last prison and church scenes, you most likely have no heart at all. I am fighting with my tears right now, just playing the movie in my mind again.