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The most stunishing thing about this movie is the acting of the drunk guy. Several times during the movie I pondered whether they had brought in a real drunk, or if it really was an actor? All his moves, the way i talked etc. were so real.

The story as far as I recall it, is about a drunk guy on dole, with no future. Suddenly he meets a person which makes his internal flame of live rise and burst.

We as spectators get a view of how it is having no future, no family and nothing to do. Its a story without any special effects or explosions (not even a telly which is thrown out of the window from the second floor explode upon impact with the sidewalk!) But still, the story is so much better than of most multi-billion dollar movies from Hollywood.

This movie is about forgiving, decay, hope, love and death. The main character is played to perfection by Jesper Christensen, one of the best performances i've ever seen in any movie. I was 100% convinced that he was a deathdrunk alcoholic, what a masterpiece of acting!!! 10 stars on his acting alone.

The story is beautiful, sad but very very true. Many of us close our eyes to these kind of people and tend to forget that behind the sad drunken facades are real people with real stories and emotions. This movie smacks these people right in your face. Some people find it disgusting, but the rest of us find that this is a masterpiece of a movie. Its in my top 3 of all time favourite movies.

I was very skeptical when I first went to see this movie, I have never been a fan of political movies or movies with an overstated "message". This film however, proved to be neither. This is a refreshingly unsentimental portrayal of one of the members of society that we all would prefer to ignore. The main character, Kaj, is a wellfare client with no prospects, he once had a job and was making a life for himself, but now he is a broken down alcoholic with a genuine but thinly-veiled deathwish. He is masterfully portrayed by Jesper Christensen who, deservedly, won both the Bodil and Robert awards for his performance. Enter a woman who says she is his daughter and suddenly his world becomes complicated. What is so great about this film is that it never wallows in pity and heartfelt sympathies for its protagonists and neither does it become a political manifesto about the sufferings of the lower classes. This is ultimately a movie about a man, a man who may have made some wrong decisions in his life but nonetheless a human being like the rest of us. Per Fly spent a lot of time with people whose life resembles that of the characters in order to achieve a high level of authenticity. As a result the setting of the film is thoroughly believable and the characters equally so. This is the first film in Per Fly's trilogy about the classes in Denmark, the second movie about the upper class premiers this week in Denmark and the third, about the middle class will begin preproduction shortly.

I can see on the message boards, that this film does not come with English subtitles - only Danish for the hearing impaired, so foreigners don't get much help ... however, the Cinema version should have English subtitles.

It is actually a great shame, because this film is not really about something special Scandinavian.

Above all, it is good to see, that really good movies touching important themes can be done without a Hollywood budget.

There is an old quote in Danish culture: "People say that Jeppe is drinking, but they don't say why Jeppe is drinking". This film illustrates this point very well.

But the film is part of a trilogy, so maybe they make a boxed set in the future with English subtitles ... one can only hope.

The movie is worth watching due to the acting of Jesper Christensen, who was rewarded greatly afterwards for his performance. Also smaller parts by Jens Albinus and Lars Brygmann are worth noticing.

The film lacks the simple ingredient: coherence, which is partially down to the terrible acting by Stine Holm Joensen (the daughter). And due her importance to the story this ruins a lot, especially the credibility of her character.

She also coincidentally moves in right next to her alcoholic father whom she hasn't seen for 19 years which doesn't exactly give the start of the film nor the storyline a lot of credibility either.

The development of the alcoholic Kaj might seem realistic from an objective point of view but because the actions preceding this development are non effectual you lose faith in the story. It is the sudden reoccurring of his daughter that ruins his daily routines and makes him act out of nature. Everything that happens to him throughout the movie is down to his daughter and grandson, the transition between father and daughter is therefore very important but unfortunately Stine Holm Joensen isn't convincing. The story has potential and could have been very great, especially considering the simplicity and originality of the film. BUT as successful an approach this might seem it also harms the film because it adds pressure and emphasis on the storyline and the acting, which the film simply isn't strong enough to carry. I actually laughed more than I was moved (mostly down to some really funny and clever lines) but I wasn't moved at times when I was supposed to. I didn't like the music of the film either. The red thread of it was confusing; Should one; cry, laugh, be excited? The film is recommendable of course - Not everyone would share my critical views, and the amazing acting, after all, from Jesper Christensen is worth watching. Too many mistakes though (acting, story/plot)in important scenes and sequences is enough to ruin it, for me at least. 5 1/2 out of 10