Le mele di Adamo

This was a wonderful surprise at the (Cleveland) CIFF, a well-made dark comedy.

Adam is a neo-Nazi on a sort of Danish "probation for reprobates", where society's sinners are given a gradual re-introduction to public life under the guidance of Ivan, a parish minister. Adam needs to negotiate a "program" for his several weeks stay; despite his efforts at being arch and cynical Ivan takes him totally in seriousness, setting "baking an apple pie" as Adam's goal. A battle of wills ensues between Adam and Ivan, with wonderful comedic support from Gunnar (Nicolas Bro in another wonderful role) the ex-tennis player and Khalid (Ali Kazim) as a not-yet-reformed terrorist.

Everyone is coping here, but the central character is clearly Ivan (perhaps the funniest I've seen Mads Mikkelsen!). He comes across as "Pangloss" with a twist: "everything is for the best" in this world only in that the devil conspires to make everything a test of man's faith. He is completely deluded yet completely steadfast. This rational irrationality is perhaps the greatest challenge to Adam; no matter what he does Ivan retains his faith…to a point where the comedy simply takes another course.

Not to give away the delight of this comedy's surprises, the characters cope with life, each other, are exasperated and exasperating, consistently inconsistent…the trials of Job are well played out in this barely disguised absurdist romp.

Having seen all these actors in earlier flicks I thought I knew what I had in store. I was wrong. I laughed like silly where one shouldn't laugh and enjoyed the movie immensely. It is set in a typical Danish village but there is nothing typical about the inhabitants. The priest has a way with people which even the Bee Gees can't dilute. The doctor has this wonderful Danish dialect which all you non-Danish speaking people will miss out on, but still he will be very funny to you all. It's hard to compare this film to any other, but maybe it owes something to "They Eat Dogs in China". And who would have thought that "A Half Kennedy" is a medical term? If you are only going to see one Nordic movie this decade, don't miss out on this one!

Mean, very funny satire with amazing performances by all - and with an absolutely outstanding Mads Mikkelsen. This is a very black comedy, but also a very smart one that shows once more that Scandinavian - and especially Danish - cinema had some of the most diverse and creative output in Europe over the last two decades. 8 stars out of 10.

In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:

imdb.com/list/ls070242495

Great movie. We saw it one late night not really knowing what to expect but this was over our expectations. Funny and well written dialouge, great acting and an amazing story! I laughed, almost cried, was chocked, laughed again and got some new tools to handle life with =) It is what I would call a black comedy in the same way as Blinkande Lyktor or Old men in new cars, both of them great danish movies. What caught me was the wicked story and how they really make it seem possible. I can imagine that this has taken place in a small church somewhere on the danish countryside. The dialouge is great, tons of punchlines that bubbles up the day after or even weeks after you have seen the film.

I watched this film now several times: the dark humor, brilliant acting, good story arc, consistent character development and well done (visual) narration is beautiful to watch - everytime.

If you are not afraid of grotesque situations, some blood, dark jokes and creepy characters - this is your choice tonight.