Não é Mais Uma História de Amor

Just Another Love Story (2007)

Wow, what a great movie. Very European in how it is shot and constructed, and in the realism of the acting. But this is not a "realistic" movie like some of the gritty fictional movies that tend to look like real life, horrors and all. This alternates a highly realistic acting with a layered and deliberately constructed structure to make for an aesthetic experience as well as a narrative one.

The plot is involved and is too easily given away, but the meat of it is that a well meaning, likable guy finds that an opportunity to become someone else comes along and it is too tempting to pass up. But only sometimes. And with some hidden strings attached, naturally. His experience in both pairs of shoes is transcendent for him, and worth the sacrifice it seems.

It all begins when his car stalls and the car behind him swerves and gets into an accident of its own. He goes to help the driver--a beautiful young woman who has sight problems and amnesia in her recovery.

This might sound like a movie convenience, but it's not. The intensity of what follows, and the way the actors make it believable, is stunning. In the simplest form of a recommendation I would say: see this film. It's different without being affected. It's honest and realistic without becoming reality. It moves and intrigues all the way through.

A Danish film set mostly in Copenhagen, "Just Another Love Story" is not just another love story a bit. Look for something magical, inventive, and extremely well made.

If you think the title is ironic, you'd be 100% correct. This is as unconventional a romance as it comes... as a bored, frustrated father of two witnesses a crash, where a beautiful young woman is injured. Suffering from amnesia, he puts his morals aside by pretending to be her boyfriend... fooling her family and leaving his in the process. What he doesn't bank on though, is the girl having a DARK AND MYSTERIOUS past which is about to turn around bite her (and him, by implication) in the... posterior. Ouch.

Full of more twists and turns than the world's biggest chute, where the movie also scores is the superb direction... especially when two tense scenes are juxtapositioned (look it up, word fans) together. The acting is also on point, with each performer wringing every last drop of emotion and tension out of the material. And like the best suspense dramas, they talk to each other like REAL people, not cardboard cutouts from a pulp novel. Overall, the best import from Denmark since streaky bacon. Sorry, I'm not a Man U fan... 7/10

This movie is everything that reminds me why I love movies. I came across it unwittingly as I stood outside a remote movie hall in New York and was drawn to its English title, "Just Another Love Story". One glance at the poster told me it was anything but that. A man, stands with a gun drawn over a dead man in a pool of blood. Time wasn't wasted. Tickets were bought. Seats occupied.

The movie begins like promised with a series of numbered love scenes. Except that it was hardly love. It begins with the protagonist's narrative of how it all ends and then we are thrown into his life, abruptly as we come in terms with the brutality of what he does, boring mundaneness of how he lives and how he is suddenly, unwittingly drawn into a passionate love, an exotic fantasy and a forbidden life that he claims as his own.

And as we follow him through a sensory overload of events, we are both repulsed and strangely attracted to his actions. The guilty pleasure of enjoying something really despicable. There is always a woman, the protagonist says, and there is one here. One, we are as much mesmerized with, as is the protagonist. Cleverly written, the characters often dwell in the intricacies of metafiction. A woman and a mystery are the ideal ingredients of a movie, one of the characters says sarcastically. A good shot, says the protagonist in another scene which is a classic film noir shot if any ever is.

The background score is brilliant, alternating between a slow haunting acoustic guitar, to a symphony of sorts as we move through the protagonist's life. The script is fresh and pulsating with energy as we laugh one second and are repulsed the very next. If a movie can make you grimace, laugh and bite you nails with apprehension and wonder at the intelligent sharp exchange of dialog, it is one that has managed to make its mark. This particular movie has surpassed the mark.

Acting by the lead characters is ace. The confrontation scene between the protagonist and his opposite number is fletched out stunningly. Fragments of each life are shown to you, and as you put everything together and move towards what is a stunning climax, you realize somewhat surprised, that this movie is exactly what it promised to be.

Just another love story.

This movie is in my opinion a great leap forward for Danish Film.

The many different levels it works on simultaneously - seem to encapsulate the feeling of someone being in way too deep and over his head while not being able to untangle himself from something dangerous, exciting and alluring.

The film proficiently portrays how making one split-second decision can take you in to increasingly deeper and more serious waters - pushing you to make choices about your life you never knew you dared.

The acting is superb, especially the head first passionate plunge of the relationship between Rebecka Hemse and Anders W. Berthelsen juxtaposed with the secure home-life that Mette (Charlotte Fich) provides, represents and desperately fights to uphold.

The editing and pace of the film grips, moves and pushes you into all sorts of different reactions and places, while the gorgeous visual palette of the cinematography is second to none in my opinion. Dan Laustsen must be a member of the absolute elite working in Europe today.

I throughly enjoyed this film, and would not hesitate in recommending it to any moviegoers out there who enjoy being challenged, moved and thought-provoked when taking in a film.

Go see it!! C

Actually I can't agree with the rather negative user comment. I saw the movie just last week at the Fantasy Filmfest in Munich, Germany. In my opinion the movie was one of the surprising highlights at the Fantasy Filmfest. I was pleasantly surprised after watching many of the other movies at the festival. Different from many of the other films which were just splatter and blood everywhere, this movie actually had a good story, surprising twists and good actors. I liked how the actor showed the feelings of many people: not wanting to be normal and having some more exciting things happening in his life. He actually had a good life with a wife, kids, nice flat, but something was just missing. I think a lot of people feel like this. And best of all: The ending is great!