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.

The premise of this story is so utterly ridiculous, that you rapidly appreciate that it can go in any direction. Whatever the writers choose to pursue as the actual tale, is entirely their right.

What they do pursue, is a tense little drama based around the situation that the magic creates. The result is a dark, edgy, occasionally morbid fairy tale - one could argue that all fairy tales are like that anyway.

Mads gives his usual beautiful-teak performance (I'm sure the man has more than one act... then again, I don't really care if he does), and the supporting cast, particularly the wife and daughter, are excellent.

I did like the way the story gets on top of you, and accelerates. There is a story by Charles Stross that this movie reminds me of, but I can't give you the name without spoiling (it's also not one of his better tales I'm afraid).

Where I could possibly knock off points would be maybe in the logic, but then this isn't an SF tale, it's fantasy. It's also a little long for the tale it tells, it could have been just a bit more compressed for the content. Finally, it's just not a work that moved me - it's good, it's gripping, it's entertaining. But it's not high art.

I can recommend this film, just don't expect it to blow your mind.

One of the best European productions i have seen this year and absolutely Deutsche Grundlichkeit! Mads Mikkelsen would make Oscar material out of an airline safety video and he again is blowing is away.

When distraught artist Mikkelsen finds a door to a parallel world it looks to go his way. The story line makes sense from beginning till end in this top smart suspense script with superb performance by Danish sexiest man of the year Mikkelsen and Schwartz as his wife. This story burns slow, but fastidious, and it twists and twists and twists.

A perfect world is only one layer away from disaster is one that applies here and as said by André Maurois: a man cannot free himself from the past more easily than he can from his own body. The mundane average surroundings make you realize only half way that you are watching a master piece.

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.

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.