Copenhagen

Shot in the beautiful city of (you guessed it) Copenhagen, Denmark, the film follows 28-year-old William (Gethin Anthony) as he searches for his grandfather with nothing to guide him besides a letter—written in Danish, which William can not read nor speak—that his father wrote around 40 years ago. After his best friend Jeremy (Sebastian Armesto) and Jeremy's girlfriend (Olivia Grant) leave him to search the city on his own, William enlists the help of a local girl, Effy (Frederikke Dahl Hansen), to aid him in his search. The two begin to form a budding romance, until William discovers that Effy is only 14 years old. Though Copenhagen begins as a search to find one's family, it soon becomes clear that it's far more important to find one's self. Through William's character, Raso paints a vividly accurate portrait of having to mature and develop as one travels through their 20s. Both Anthony and Hansen give remarkable performances, artistically presenting a great deal of sentiment. I personally prefer to remain eternally seven, but Raso gives a great argument on the benefits of growing up.

I hope there's going to be a sequel, like in the 'Before Sunrise' trilogy, where he goes back to Copenhagen in 6 years when she's 21 and he's 34 and age will be irrelevant at that point!!

Copenhagen is a nice little movie. And actually would be a really good one if it wasn't for the male lead Gethin Anthony. I was shocked that he actually is a trained actor because his acting his horrendous. I have no other word for it. For the whole movie he is simply not capable of delivering any kind of emotion. I never one second believe his bad boy stick. His facials, his attempts to deliver dialogue are so cringe worthy. Wait till you get to the scene with him on a payphone. I literally buried my face in my blanket.

Frederikke Dahl Hansen on the other hand is the exact opposite. You immediately know that acting comes natural to her and even when she has moments where she seems not really sure how to deliver a certain line you can tell that this is just a matter of experience. She and the beautiful scenery makes this movie worth wile. With a better male actor it could have been so much more.

Copenhagen is a catching story.

It's a very pleasant film and the Author (Mark Raso, a very talented young filmmaker: this is his first / debut feature film...) seems perfectly aware that the best thing you can do, as an artist, is to entertain.

The movie is an hour and a half of youthful wandering through Denmark, without any dull or dead moments, filmed with very good taste (and very good acting).

Of course I noticed that (as stated in the synopsis) the girl is younger than the boy. But this is hardly the main theme.

Actually you can find many things in the movie, from sex addiction to finding-your-roots, but these (on my opinion) are just as the canvas on which the writer made his characters act.

Enjoy.

I am very protective of my movie time and end watching a film the moment it veers off to the nowhere land. So, obviously I watched "Copenhagen" to the end. If you liked "Before sunrise" trilogy, the movie aspires to them, except the script here is the main problem and that's a shame. So, the actors: the main character played by Gethin Anthony does what he can with the script but because the script is flat, his talents go unsupervised and honestly I got lost at times. For example, why he goes in fits and is so mad or angry at times? Why a young American be so rude to a cute teenage waitress who spilled coffee on a table? It's almost unheard of. The guy travels in Europe for a while too, so, it doesn't fit the profile. Moreover, if he was not on good terms with his father why is he even judgmental towards his grandfather? Why is he constantly quarreling with his best friend? I donno. On the other hand, Effy, the main female lead character is resourceful, energetic and awkward at times which is fine as she is supposed to be 14 rather than 20 as the real age of the actress. Her role is better developed in the script. The plot: the main idea of a family search for a long lost grandpa is meaningless to the viewer, there is no background to prompt the interest and appears to be only in the movie to hold the movie together. However, all those bits and pieces are beautifully glued by Copenhagen's images of cobbled narrow streets, canals and crowded clubs and interesting music in the background. That, the cute Danish accent and the age of Effy add to the more dimensional atmosphere of the film. There is something I cannot point to, perhaps the nostalgia (I lived in Sweden for more than a year and have great memories) or the fact that the main character grows up suddenly and makes the right choice made this film interesting enough for me to watch it to the end.