A l'autre bout du monde

It's a fun danish comedy. The lead and second lead are great. The movie has a fairly high budget and it shows. It's about a Danish psychiatrist and his assistant who are sent to an Asian country to determine if a man who has killed several British Nature journalists and claims to be 129 years old is crazy.

The psychiatrist is himself quite peculiar and has a phobia about being touched. It has funny moments and good action scenes. Overall, it's quite entertaining to watch. Not a serious film at all.

One negative is Steven Berkoff's rather underwhelming performance which drags the film down a bit.

I saw this film as part of the "Imagine" film festival 2011 in Amsterdam, where it was announced as an Action film. Given the synopsis, it could have been categorized as Comedy too. Neither make this into a perfect fit for this type of festival, but I booked nevertheless. I was primarily driven by contradictory reviews, which work on me as a magnet, if only to see for myself what the controversy is all about. I am glad about my decision, and was not disappointed by what I saw.

The story line is perfectly paced throughout the time span of this film. Something unexpected happens all the time, and no crystal ball will help you predict what the next turn of events will be. Of course, scenario and setting are unrealistic by design. How can two people who always lived in the city of a Western country, survive in the Indonesian jungle, full of dangers from plants and animals? You'll have to put those thoughts aside, before fully enjoying the script with so many surprises built in.

Music lovers will not get much attention. However, at suitable places we hear a full orchestra doing its very best to support the wide visions we get on even so wide landscapes. And we get some of that: above the jungle while in a helicopter, in the jungle standing where two rivers branch, approaching the coast line, and so on.

The film builds on a multitude of ingredients. There is a father-son relationship that seems not supportive for the son's future development. There is a seemingly zero-IQ secretary who rises to the survival task before her later on. There is the Indonesian police who works on different rules than what we are used to. And so on, and so on. Apart from preventing spoilers, I see no useful purpose in condensing the story here within a few paragraphs. You should have seen it, to believe all the things contained in this film.

To conclude, I was very happy to have seen this movie, regardless of it not fitting in aforementioned horror/thriller/sf/fantasy festival where it was programmed. It was different from the rest of the festival, and some good laughs can never be missed between all the blood, violence and other terrifying things I saw on the screen. I gave an "excellent" score for the public prize competition when leaving the theater.

This movie was made in the style of gems like "the green butchers", "adam's apples" and "flickering lights". No wonder, because those movies also had the stamp of director / writer Anders Thomas Jensen on them (and also actor nicolaj lie kaas in them). Ridiculous story and dialog, hard humor and always unexpected turn of events is his trademark and this movie has it all! I saw one review saying that it was unrealistic and impossible. Well, that was probably the intention of the director, so enjoy it if you like a funny movie and go watch a documentary if you want realism! no spoilers in this review, just watch the movie!

I went into this film thinking it would be a Danish Indiana Jones. Well, it wasn't. I'm not a big fan of adventure films, but I do like to watch one from time to time. This one seemed interesting and the main premise kinda intriguing, even though quite unrealistic.

It's a good comedy adventure film, but it's not your typical family-friendly entertainment. Some parts of it were rather dark and in some places even brutal (there's torture, killings, and plenty of blood). On more than one occasion I thought to myself there was no way the main characters would survive that (and in real life they wouldn't), but then again it's a film, so some suspension of disbelief is necessary.

It was very well acted, the actors did a really good job and it was nice to see Matthias Hues again. If you're into jungle adventure films, give it a try. Just bare in mind that some parts may be disturbing for younger audiences.