In der Stunde des Luchses

it is a film about yourself. if you have patience and the gift of search far to skin of things, it can be useful. because the theme is the conquest of happiness. a delicate, touching message who reminds basic facts. a film like a time travel. because, it is not a case adaptation, a blockbuster or a pink entertainment but , maybe, image of a honest question. a fragile discover of roots. sure, it is not exactly the expected film for many. but its images are beautiful, the performance - precise, the spirit of play - more than in an ordinary adaptation. more important is the emotion after its end. because, it is one of films who gives and explores yourself to you. a film who reminds small things. bitter taste. splendid landscapes. and a lot of feelings. that can be all !

To appreciate this piece of film making 100 percent you should devolve into the story telling, without expecting an action story, but rather the thought of the effect of a religious wishes in an otherwise chaotic upbringing.

The Danish film "I losses time", also known by other titles like "In the hour of the Lynx" or "Den 25. Timen" ("The 25th hour"), which is explained in the film as an hour where the cat animal lynx reaches another dimension. The lynx is told to sleep for 21 hours of 24, uses 3 hours to find food being very alert, and having a 25th hour of deeper consciousness, the hour outside it all, when we are at our most happy At least that is the theory of the inmate after being told stories about it by his grandfather. The film grabbed my interest right from the start, made up as a mystery, as it is. The story is based upon a stage okay by Per Olof Enquist, and is filmed in both Sweden and Denmark.

The narrator voice of a female priest starts off this, and tells the story if a teenage boy being imprisoned for a double homicide seemingly without reason. The boy gets the attention of a young female researcher which is allowed a project at the mental prison concerning the use of pets amongst inmates. Pushed calls upon the priest when the boy attempts suicide, and the priest enters the prison just as the young researcher experiences her projects immediate shut down, due to a conflict.

I can't help being impressed by the Danish films made these days. For the last 20 years Danish film industry has constantly grown, just as we've seen the Nordic countries Sweden, Island, Noway and Finland follow up. Now especially the Danes and the Norwegians are turning up A-class films over and over. "In the hour of the Lynx" is another one of these great films.

The film manages to get immediate response from me as a viewer dud to great character development. All main characters seem interesting, and are of course well played. The film uses an advanced time structure off the story telling, and uses retrospective technique in both memories and in several of the persons minds. Quite advanced but also effective, like in a solving of a crime story, though it might give some difficulties in following the storyline. Photography is brilliant, as is the use if light to express the modes.

Another Nordic noir both story's use as well as in depicted colors. The story had two female characters in main roles, and the story is told during a time span of less than 20 hours. Susanne Gråbøl is captivating in her main role as a priest, and the rest if the cast is equally brilliant. Frederik Christian Johansen as the boy, is a great talent, and does his best role so far here. He is his role here. Søren Kragh-Jacobsen has done another great job. The story telling almost becomes amazing, when we go back in time to the boys childhood living with his religious grandfather.

The story rises a lot of questions about upbringing and religion, and if you have respect for that, you won't get disappointed. The too low rating here I'm IMDb tells that not everyone was happy with the wrapping if he story. I found it beautiful.

The film has a gripping start, possessing great possibilities for the development of a good thriller with twists and flashbacks, but, in its stead, we see an over-sophistication of drama with mental issues, loose ends and weakly or trivially substantiated motives. The source mood is nice, major performances are promising, but overall accomplishment did not meet my expectations. When the credits appeared, I just shrugged my shoulders and thought that The Killing type of suspense and unknowing is much more fascinating. Events in someone's mind should be handled in a more versatile manner, it is rather easy to get stuck into uniformity and attempts to create horror.

So, 8 points for performances, 4 for the script. The film is no flop, but do not expect persistent thrill and/or witty twists.

This is not so much a review, it's more a recommendation. I write this mainly because I've read a few negative comments on the message boards.

If you are into popcorn flicks, easy going stories without any deeper meaning, if you are a narrow-minded person..etc. etc (you get the point, right?) If you are any of those, then this movie is obviously not for you.

If you are a searching soul and attracted to the darker and mystical realms of the human mind and understanding of the spiritual language, then you will enjoy this little masterpiece.

"Whoever Fights Monsters Should See To It That In The Process He Does Not Become A Monster...and When You Look Long Into The Abyss The Abyss Also Looks Into You"

Snow-swept Scandinavian bleakness. A terrible and mysterious murder. The steely face of Sofie Gråbøl. But The Killing this ain't. It's actually a very pedestrian psychological drama which strains credibility, and threatens to test the patience even at 90 minutes.

Gråbøl plays Helen, pleasingly introduced as a foul-mouthed priest. But then she's approached by a young psychologist named Lisbeth (Signe Egholm Olsen) who is conducting research on patients at a local psychiatric facility, and a potentially interesting character, embodying potentially interesting themes, is locked away for the rest of the movie. Lisbeth's research seems to involve giving small animals to violent inmates and then watching what happens on a monitor. Lisbeth asks Helen for help in getting through to Drengen (Frederick Christian Johansen) because he has started talking about God. Helen builds a rapport with the boy, and uncovers the truth about his troubled childhood and the defining relationship he enjoyed with his grandfather.

The problems with The Hour of the Lynx are mostly of the "Really?" variety. It's not just the idea of a psychologist hiring the nearest priest simply because her patient mentions the Almighty, nor the fundamental implausibility of Lisbeth's pet project. It's everything else, too. Why is Helen allowed to be alone in a cell with an unrestrained killer, who the authorities insist will murder without reason? Why don't Helen and Lisbeth discuss some kind of strategy for dealing with Drengen before bumbling in and arguing in front of him? How have the filmmakers managed to bungle what should be a pretty straightforward story with a flashbacking narrative that hops about so spasmodically? The two main performances, from Gråbøl and Johansen, are skillful and heartfelt. Søren Malling is solid, if stolid, as chief guard Knud. But then there's Olsen. She plays Lisbeth like a rabbit in headlights. It's partly the writing and partly the performance. Wearing a permanently startled expression, Lisbeth is a nervous presence, apparently unable to manage the dynamic between herself and her patients. Perhaps that's the point. Perhaps it's a statement on the hands-off, medication-focused state of modern psychiatry. But this isn't made clear, and the character simply comes off as hopelessly incompetent and unprofessional.

Aesthetically, the film has the look of TV, which may be appropriate for the bickering soap opera interplay between Helen and Lisbeth, but it's lethally uncinematic. The stock wilderness looks pretty but it plays no part in building character or atmosphere (other than reflecting the viewer's indifference). More evocative is Tobias Hylander's deep ambient score, subtly effective even when the drama is being unsubtly ineffective.

The film isn't a complete write-off. Once Drengen starts to open up, and we learn of his relationship with his grandfather, it's like we're watching a different movie. Fifteen minutes of moving, strange, compelling, credible human drama. This sequence made me more appreciative of the film's search for empathy, however flawed, as well as its laudable attempts at the debunking of madness-as-a-sickness. But it's too little too late for a silly film based on a lazy premise.