Brotherhood

This is one of the most amazing films I have seen in past months. There are some many details that you have to take into account... The fact that the director tried to establish a parallel between the army and the neo Nazi group, the main character's parents push him aside and let him into the group. To me, it's all about the need of belonging, that need we all have as humans. Another interesting fact is that there are no frequent computers, no cellular phones, it almost makes the story timeless. Lars is really a Nordic character because he does not quit when faced with trouble.

So, If you take a deep look the film is powerful, full of knowledge, love, passion. It's so sad that sometimes we have to find strength, hope, love among those who cannot grow - parents, groups, enraged people.

This film is real just like pure emotions. They slide into you and make you human.

at first sigh, a strange , unrealistic story. at the second, a good job. in fact, only a hypothesis about a men click and the clash between feelings and ideology. not new idea but used in wise manner. cold, cruel, with subtle references to Greek mythology, Brotherhood has a lot of virtues. the acting, the script, the set, the atmosphere, the not comfortable situations, the culture of hate against an exotic form of heresy. a film who propose a bitter subject who could not be represented only by gay relation but the manner to define the pillars of national identity, the courage and the national virtues. a film about a group and its broken rules. and a brilliant art of exploration of details.

I found this movie to be absolutely stunning in terms of direction and acting. The two lead actors were absolutely great and believable in their performances. The director was great at capturing moments of erotic tension and tenderness between the two leads. In terms of plot and story-writing there are certainly some flaws that could have been better worked out, but I really appreciated the way the theme was approached and developed. The neo nazi ideology was certainly one of the main themes but the director and the writers weren't too judgmental and they let the characters shine regardless of the reasons that brought them to be a part of such a violent and racist community. I certainly advice to watch it, cause it gives a good depiction of a "different" homosexual relationship not framable in the usual stereotypes of gay love. Good job!

A gay romance happening inside a Danish Neo-Nazi clique, what a crack idea! The film intriguingly narrates a compassionate experience of a former Danish serviceman Lars (Thure Lindhardt, the winsome blond from ANGELS & DEMONS 2009), whose passionate courtship with Jimmy (superbly played by David Dencik from A SOAP 2006, another 8/10 film from Denmark, a frenzy macho role sheerly contrasts with his transsexual image in the latter film), who is the fervent skinhead among a gay-bashing Neo-Nazi group. (Speaking of Nazism, my downright ignorance thwart me from the knowledge of how exact the film tackles with the thorny issue, judging by the film, it is basically understated I suppose).

There are abundant cinematic conflicts in the plot, although predictable, but applied deftly (by a poignant performance from the two leads and a fine-tuned hand-held camera movement, it never cease trembling). An exemplary northern Europe topography and scenario imbues an obscure hue of cruelty and restlessness.

The performances are solid (Morten Holst, who plays Jimmy's younger brother, might be a tad histrionic), both the chemistry between two lead actors and the impending tragedy are brewed perfectly on time and the sex scenes are aesthetically beguiling. More encouraging, the film doesn't take either stand to beautify or disparage the Neo-Nazi image, while love happens everywhere, so does gay love. An ambiguous deus ex machina aptly averts any cliché in the over-exploited gay-theme melodrama sub-genre although melodramatic might not be a meritorious adjective for a film under the background of a sternly violent context, but also demystifies the remotely tangible target to a humane understanding and transmits a positive message to the preconception-ridden society.

As soon as a movie starts, I start thinking about how I'm going to review it. For the first 40 minutes, I thought I was going to throw this movie in the gutter where it belonged when I reviewed it, because for all that time there's practically nothing but revolting Nazi crap. It's very, very hard to sit through. The first scene is the violent beating of a cruising gay man by a skinhead who had come on to him and told him how beautiful he was before calling out his gang to beat and kick the guy to a pulp (an incident that re-enters the story significantly near the end).

After that are long scenes of the ugly Nazis (the men are physically as well as morally ugly) spewing their toxic garbage into my ears where it was not welcome. But then... ah, then... at about the 41-minute mark, Lars and Jimmy start looking at each other in a new way, and EVERYTHING changes. The first 40 minutes of hateful garbage are well worth suffering through to get to that exquisite tenderness and passion.

Thure Lindhardt as Lars is a gentle, enormously attractive beauty from his first scene to his last, but the character is pretty flat: steady and strong but not very interesting. David Dencik got the meaty role in Jimmy, and he pulls it off brilliantly. He is completely believable both as the bitter, arrogant, brutal Nazi homophobe and as the sweet, gentle, deeply vulnerable and passionate man who eventually emerges from that hateful shell. If the first third of the movie had not been so revolting, Jimmy's emergence from that horrible world would not have been so marvelous. And it IS marvelous, some of the loveliest acting I have ever seen.

Raw, naked, totally defenseless vulnerability is something rarely seen in movies, particularly from male actors. In fact the ONLY previous example that comes to mind is Jane Fonda fairly early in her career - in Klute and even more powerfully earlier in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Fonda, in both those roles, had been beaten down by a cruel system she was helpless against; but Dencik is breaking out - against his own will - from within an even more brutal system in which he has been on top and on which he has been completely dependent for his identity.

He discovers that he's just like the guys he's been attacking, and that discovery shatters him. It shatters him, but it finally begins to set him free to be himself for the first time. It's a very great performance that makes an otherwise mediocre movie (deeply offensive when it's not simply unbelievable) well worth watching. The transformation just in his eyes is astonishing. All eight stars are for him.