You Disappear

Trine Dyrholm's husband embezzled 12 million kroners from his school. Nikolas Kaas is the husband who stole the money. But he had a brain tumor. Is he liable? Are we all products of our brain chemistry? Do we have free will or is everything determined by the synapses in our brains? The tumor was removed, but his behavior is still erratic. Bernard, Michael Nyquist, is Frederick's lawyer. His wife was terribly brain damaged in a car accident.

Frederick's Impulse control was lost by the frontal lobe tumor. Frederick's son said in court that the tumor had made his dad more fun, like a friend. The sum stolen was large and it took a complicated set of moves to get it. How could he be impaired? The opening shots of a reckless Frederick driving too fast on a narrow curvy road almost killing people does show impairment. Then an epileptic seizure causes a fall. He was impaired. Dryholm gives a star performance, but is she reliable? There are no clear answers, but that is exactly the point. This film is masterful in the depths it was able to investigate and still be a fascinating viewing.

''Du Forsvinder'' is a Danish production, directed by Peter Schønau Fog and starring a pretty heavy cast of top Scandinavian authors such as Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Trine Dyrholm and the late Michael Nyqvist. Frederic is a headmaster who is accused of embezzling his own school's funds in order to invest them -unsuccessfully- in various ventures. Frederic claims that by the time the crime was committed, he was suffering from orbitofrontal syndrome, a psychiatric disease which includes symptoms like instinctive disinhibition (hypersexuality, hyperphagia and urinary behaviour disorders). The patient of this syndrome is distractable, impulsive, euphoric and unable to abide by social rules. This problem is caused by a tumor on Frederic's brain which is diagnosed after an accident causing skull fractures. The story is narrated by alternatively showing the courtroom procedure of Frederic's case from the beginning until the final verdict and intermittent flashbacks which help the viewer to comprehend the emotional dimension of the film's characters as well as their motives for certain actions. The director focuses almost exclusively to the husband-wife-lawyer triad and their, sometimes complex, relationships between them. The movie raises some interesting questions regarding the subject of free will vs. deterministic neurophysiology and brain chemistry, as well as portraying the struggle of Frederic's family facing an illness which changes a person's demeanor in such a profound way that even his closest relatives, literally, can't recognize them. The performances are great, as expected by such a shining cast and in the end, ''Du Forsvinder'' manages to shake and oblige the reader to think a bit harder about fundamental questions concerning his own existence. Danish cinema continues to produce engaging films. My precise rating is 3,5/5.

In Denmark, Frederik Halling (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is driving on a winding road with his wife Mia Halling (Trine Dyrholm) and their teenage son Nicklas (Sofus Rønnov). Out of the blue, Frederik speeds up his car and has a minor accident. When he stops the car on the shoulder, he falls off a cliff and needs to go to the hospital, where the doctor finds a brain tumor. He is submitted to a surgery and has the tumor removed. Frederik is the headmaster of the Saxtorph school where Mia teaches. Soon the owner of the school, Laust Saxtorph (Lars Knutzon), and the board learn that Frederik has embezzled a large amount from the school that will close the school. They go to the court to prosecute Frederik, and Mia hires her friend, Bernard Berman (Michael Nyqvist), to defend her husband. Bernard uses Frederik's change of behavior while having the brain tumor to justify his action while the prosecutor (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) tries to prove that the brain tumor is not the cause of his embezzlement. The life of the Halling family is exposed in the court.

"Du forsvinder", a.k.a, "You Disappear", is an interesting film with a great discussion about human behavior with the question: "Has the lead character's behavior been changed by a brain tumor, or does he still have free will?" However, the screenplay is a messy, with many subplots and flashbacks relative to the relationship of Frederik, Mia, Nicklas, Bernard and his wife Lærke. It seems that Mia was an alcoholic woman that has imagined her affair with Bernard, who is a loyal husband, but this part is confused. The cast is excellent, but Frederik Halling is an obnoxious character and is impossible the viewer feels charisma for him. This is also one of the last films of Michael Nyqvist, who unfortunately died of lung cancer in 2017. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Você Desapareceu" ("You Have Disappeared")

The story had the potential to make a really good film.

Unfortunately this realisation of it has some serious flaws. One technical is that the monologue/commenting sound track sounds VERY much like someone reading of a paper. I have no idea if the director or the actor is to blame, if you see this in a foreign language with subtitles you MIGHT not be bothered by it.

A few of the attempts done to dramatize the story, unfortunately destroys a crucial plot element. It is only a few scenes (three!), and small alterations from explicit to subtle or omissions of the scenes would have solved it, but as is it completely destroys the main plot IMHO....

Many characters are portrayed fine by the actors, unfortunately this does not include the leading female role...

SOME parts of the film are really good, and others really really bad, so I ended giving it a (sub)mediocre grade...

Try to imagine Ingmar Bergman directing a movie thought out by Alain Resnais! Pretty hard, right? But not after watching this movie. Its digging that deep into the human condition, but also the science behind it. The movie succeeded in making a satisfying whole out of what seems to be opposites: empathy and verfremdung, fiction and facts, science and imagination, real life and theory.

A lot of food for thought here and glowing performances, solid direction and a mind-bending, intelligent screenplay.

Well done!