Todo lo que necesitas es amor

It doesn't matter how much you have, materialistic speaking. The one and only thing that makes sense in life and never fades away is the love we all feel inside, regardless of how many times it seems to let us down. Love is like an endless spring, always digging other ways to keep on flowing, if you'll let it.

"Love Is All You Need" doesn't need to say much. It's just a look into dysfunctional families and the many secrets we all hold, trying to avoid confrontation because it's much easier to pretend everything is okay. It's a very romantic and, yet, sad journey that takes you through the pain and determination of a character fighting to stay alive in every sense of the way. Sometimes love may seem to have abandoned you until it kisses you from behind, restoring the hope you thought was lost. Simply lovely.

Love is All You Need is a real crowd pleaser, feel good type of movie. It may not be very original and ground breaking but it is expertly put together and will make the viewer leave the cinema feeling good and uplifted.

Somehow, it is reminiscent of Mamma Mia!, specially with Pierce Brosnan's presence in both movies. Here, he plays a successful businessman whose son is marrying the daughter of a Swedish hairdresser with an unfaithful husband. The wedding is set in romantic Sorrento and unexpected events happen which keep the film continuously interesting. Brosnan is particularly good and this film has the potential to become a big hit.

I saw this film as part of the Ghent filmfestival 2012. Usually I've little interest in feelgood movies, and particularly not when wedding festivities are an integral element. But the synopsis in the filmfestival brochure had that little something that made me book tickets, and I'm not disappointed. That does not mean that important questions of life and death are discussed, but rather that it proves solid entertainment for the whole duration (nearly 2 hours), no more no less. You will forget about the movie later on, to remember only that it was pleasant and amusing throughout.

The story line develops steadily, and all important characters get time to be introduced to the audience. In other words, we really get the chance to know them. These introductions are spread evenly, and luckily not condensed in the first quarter.

Center of the proceedings is hairdresser Ida, who just returned from hospital after a cancer treatment. She is wearing a wig as a result, hence the original title "The bald hairdresser" (possibly for commercial reasons translated to "Love is all you need"). Still not certain about the ultimate success of the cancer treatment, she returns home. There she finds her husband Leif with the much younger Tilde (from "accounting") doing it on the couch. Ida does not take it lightly, and a divorce seems imminent.

As her daughter Astrid will be getting married in Italy within a few days, she travels alone to the airport. In her nerves to park the car in order to catch her flight, she collides with the car of a business man in vegetables (Philip). He happens to be the father of the groom (Patrick), and on his way to the same marriage. This coincidence seems a bit of a stretch as well as statistically impossible. Luckily it is the only thing in this film that I consider far fetched. Combining that encounter with the fact (we learn that later on) that he is a widower, allows us to predict the main story line from that moment on. However... It does not happen that way, at least not exactly.

Apart from the developments around the relationship between Ida and Philip, there are ample opportunities for sub-plots and new characters to be introduced along the line. All this gets gradually interwoven in the story, without giving us a feeling that the film makers are overdoing it. The time that the film takes, much more than the average 90 minutes, offers sufficient room for parallel story lines to develop and come to a (sometimes happy, sometimes not so happy) conclusion. The script mixes all these many ingredients in an ingenious way, and stays believable from start to finish (aforementioned car accident being the only exception).

I don't think it makes any sense to delve deeper in the scenario. Which is next to impossible anyway without revealing how the story develops, and without introducing spoilers in the text. That would take away much of the surprise, a definite no-no, since surprises are the main ingredients out of which this film is made.

Apart from superb casting and acting that we are allowed to witness, the story line (better: story lines) suffice to keep the viewer interested all the time in what will happen next. I could not spot any dull moments, in other words fully qualified entertainment for the whole family. Expecting no more than what the label says, I scored it deservedly with a maximum (5) for the audience award when leaving the theater.

Love Is All You Need is a wedding, romance, and family movie from Denmark mostly taking place in Italy. It is about solving the riddles within yourself, not necessarily succeeding, but at least acknowledging them.

The good. Superb Italian panoramas. Fascinating and touching story with a lot of depth. Very realistic. Solidly built scenario with interesting twists and turns. Excellent background. Perfect ending. Nicely romantic with a few laughs. Well grounded. No clichés.

The actors. Trine Dyrholm is absolutely fantastic, beautiful and compelling. Pierce Brosnan, while not playing too far from his usual roles, is just great. And I have to mention the work of Paprika Steen as the annoying, mean, and self-centered aunt/sister-in-law.

The bad. I can't thing of anything. That's how much I appreciated the flick.

The ugly. Nothing.

The result. Something much different from Hollywood's romantic films. A true breath of fresh air. A must for everyone, to the exception of those not interested in romance or family conflicts.

The brief preview I read of this film described it as an antidote to "shrill, soulless Hollywood romantic comedies" with the power to "restore your faith in the entire genre". I was unsure whether it would live up to such high praise, but decided to give it a go.

The film follows the story of Ida, a lovely lady recovering from chemotherapy and the antics of her unappreciative husband Leif. Separately we follow her daughter Astrid as she prepares to wed her fiancé Patrick in a beautiful secluded grove in Sorrento. But marriage is not portrayed in this film as a straightforward or predictable process, and hints of challenges soon begin to emerge, both for the engaged couple and for Ida herself.

My attention was gripped more than anything by the characters themselves. All confused to some degree, I found them likable to a person - even Leif, whose "activities" were less than admirable. Their hidden depths are revealed through their struggles. I'd like to give a special nod here to Pierce Brosnan's Philip. Emotionally constricted from the start, his defensiveness and wariness gradually ease to reveal a man of real depth and warmth.

The photography in this film is gorgeous, but there again, it's only important as the backdrop to the characters' personal development. It's also a very humorous film in places, and I found the two hours flew by. 10/10.