Mirakel

Mirakel (Miracle) is second feature film by Thomas Kaiser, and his first for a grown up audience. The film is a traditional romantic comedy with a sub plot theme about human value and relations, which makes the film more interesting than the average romantic comedy.

Karsten (Christian Skolmen), 35, lost his love of life four years ago in cancer, and is at a stand still. He works in a café and thinks life is quite OK. In the start of the film he accidentally meets Victoria (Eva Röse), a successful business woman, which just has moved into town. She stands for what Karsten believes he hate. Their meeting is only the first.

So to the sub plot. Karsten's sister is mother of two grown up boys, one of which has muscular dystrophy, an illness which might be terminal, even by a normal cold. Victoria is successful on medical research. So there you have a sub plot, which is basis for the biggest drive of the movie.

The actors do a good job, though the script has scenes and dialog which feels a bit forced at times. I don't think the chemistry works either, as a whole. Still the film works on a feel good level, though some parts of the comical episodes here is embarrassing, as usual in quite a few romantic comedies. The film had Christmas premiere in Norway in 2006, but flopped big, due to James Bond and "Casino Royale" which premiered the same weekend with immense success.

If you are able to see through that, you'll have an OK watch.

This movie has been presented everywhere as a romantic movie, and a couple in love may go to see this movie, enjoy that part of it and have a good experience. BUT, this movie is much more than that: In many ways, it can be compared to Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", just forwarded a couple of hundred years through history, and reversed the genders: Rich woman without soul meets poor man, falls in love, but can't get her beloved before she expands her thinking, discovers her heart and learns to respect his way of life.

In "Mirakel", there's another very important subplot, relating to the worth of man. One of the most important supporting characters in the movie suffers from muscular atrophy. In a very beautiful way, the movie portrays how the people around him struggles to take care of him, but also matures as humans.

In my opinion, this movie is a great work of art!