It's all about love

This remains a strange notion, although it has inspired several features by now (there's one of those burlesque X Files episodes with a similar motif), but Vinterberg fetches it far, far out.

OK, inhale... Could it be that we're doing more damage to the environment, not just by keeping our heavy industries and disposing of toxic waste but, actually, through coldness, indifference and alienation from each other? Is the coldness of heart somehow projected on to the earth's gravitation field and climate, causing bizarre atmospheric anomalies, eventually bringing the next ice age upon humanity? If that is the case, there must be a critical number of couples in love, who are somehow radiating there emotions, and thus, keeping the global climate in balance. Should it fall below the critical value, the nature will retaliate, turning us all into icicles!?

Could this be the reason, the Marchevsky's (Danes, Phoenix) become so important for the plot? Maybe, they're this critical couple, whose emotions happen to determine the course of possible cataclysmic events, also making them a target of some vague conspiracy. If Elena fails to get back with John, her clonettes are trained to fill in for her, whether as a loving wife or an ice skating champion. Basically, the script has so many loose ends that you could go on speculating forever, which is ok, if the director's actual intention was to provoke speculation.

Also, while I was watching it, the monotonous pace and a chilling atmosphere made me half asleep, except for a few unexpected lines in my native language uttered by one of the clonettes.

To sum up - intriguing idea, beautiful art direction/photography, decent acting, disastrous script. So, if you happen to be a speculator, environmentalist, climatologist, or particularly keen on the idea of 'reversed meteoropathy' (there's probably a more suitable term for this), It's All About Love should be interesting for you. Otherwise, be patient and wait for the next attempt by this undoubtedly talented director.

The one movie I've seen in the last 2 years that doesn't actually telegraph what's happening 2 frames ahead. i took the wrong fork in the mystery, got surprised, loved the production values, enjoyed some great music, the best mood music with ice since Smilla's sense of snow, and a video store find turned out to be the best in 4 rentals.

This movie got slammed by a lot of critics, who seemed to resist what the director was trying to present. life is a well choreographed, visually designed mystery with randomness thrown in. The terrestrial back story to the anomie in the societal makeup brings the character;s focus and hope in clearer definition.

is the headline craziness in this film any weirder than what's actually in the headlines today? There is a post-Katrina resonance to the topography agitating for notice in the periphery, and i actually wondered if it was written by Philip K Dick, there is a first-The Matrix freshness here that backs up our suspicions, that nightmare incidence of a look over your shoulder, when not only is something there, but it's not good, and you can actually see all the way down its gaping maw.

see it.

I went to see this film just a week ago as it has just been given a limited release in the U.K. I didn't have high hopes for the film due to the poor reviews. However when I saw it I was pleasently surprised by the great cinematography and the quirky storyline. This is by far one of the best films I have seen so far this year. 8/10

criminally underrated

A "roman negre" is a French novel written by a famous author such as Octave Mirbeau who wants -- perhaps because it's too personal, or else because it's not self-important enough to satisfy the rabid litterateurs -- to say something that he wouldn't say under his own name. And believe me, it's more than possible that von Trier didn't want his own cognomen on a script that includes the line "Here with more on the flying Ugandan phenomenon..."

Twice.

Thomas Vinterberg, from what I've seen of him, is joined at the hip to Von Trier as his prettier, younger apprentice. He won his spurs by trudging through a Dogme project on the oh-so-serious theme of incest that critics loved, only to be blown out of the water by his mentor with his own devious Dogme contribution, The Idiots. And he has recently directed his third film, Dear Wendy, whose screenplay is actually credited to von Trier alone -- can you imagine a more thankless job?

But after seeing It's All About Love in the theater last year, and again on Sundance Channel last night, it's equally clear that, influenced though he might be by his own personal Dr. Frankenstein, Vinterberg's second film is ultimately the only one that is entirely HIS. No matter how much the deus ex machina ( deus ex machine gun? ) character of Morrison reminds you of the similar hit-man/God figure from Dogville, despite the prevalence of a gnostic philosophy that von Trier only recently picked up for his "American trilogy," and even despite lines like "I don't want to be a dog" uttered ironically by people who have at that very moment thrown away their souls and become exploitative, desperate, vicious monsters a la the citizens of Nicole Kidman's least favorite mining community, what It's All About Love proves is that there are places Vinterberg can go that von Trier can't, namely, into the enchanted realm of the CARAXIAN -- the beautifully naive and youthfully idealistic, despite the prevalent doom and despair. Like Sean Penn says at the end, it really is all about love, even if that love now is just a memory.

People don't seem to get this movie, don't seem to get much of anything anymore, and every single baffled, acidic review on this page makes me jealous, because it proves that Vinterberg's "report on the state of the world" is extremely vital. This is a movie, my friends, that "not getting" means you're dead and blind, so it's quite imperative that you watch again. There are many ways to prepare yourself. Perhaps the easiest would be to watch its sister films of 2004, Winterbottom's Code 46 and Kar-Wai's 2046 ( the similar titles are no coincidence ), as well as some more mainstream gnostic films about the costs of our profound spiritual crisis like Enduring Love, Dogville, The Hulk, or Spielberg's twin contributions, The Terminal and A.I. Or, if you really want to suck all the pith out of the thing, you could could immerse yourself in Monteverdi and Purcell operas, plays by Shakespeare and Maeterlinck and perhaps some stories by Villiers de l'Isle Adam. Meanwhile, the more lazy among you you could treat yourself to the Cliff's Notes version, in this case, the grotesque unreeling saga of Tom Cruise and his robot bride, which this movie foreshadows in a way that is thoroughly creepy ( indeed, IAAL suggests that these relationships lived for the sake of the public eye with its attendant cash value will be the template for all future human interaction. )

Sadly, all that preparation will be futile if you don't want, with all your heart, for your nightmare to end. Without some curiosity about your relation to your creator, some skepticism regarding technology and science, and the will to overcome the fear of death that eventually drives most people into the perverse soul-destroying transactions this movie illustrates with such timeless romantic flair, It's All About Love will be gobbledygook to you. And so will your life, by the way.

Well

Where do you begin on such a film? First thing to point out, if you wish to save yourself £3.50, then read this first.

Several words can sum up this film. 'Pointless' 'Weird' 'Strange' the list would continue until I run out of negative expressions.

It all starts with a character called John, (Joaquin Phoenix) who flies to New York to meet up with his wife called Elena (Claire Danes) . The purpose of the meeting is nothing more then to get divorce papers signed. However he is met by two of his wife's entourage, and he is taken back to her hotel, and is forced to endure a night at the ice skating.

His wife is a world famous figure skater, last time I looked this sport was as popular as synchronized swimming, however for the purposes of the film, it's as popular as the world cup, and she as a sports personality has world wide fame and recognition that David Beckam would be envious off.

Anyway, long story short, she is well past her sale by date in the sport, and her team are replacing her with Elena Clones. Sounds stupid, and is. The reason for this is because without her, they are all unemployed and unemployable (just as they should be as a collective group of actors)

John is clueless to the entire situation until he meets one of the clones wielding a knife at him, and it's only when Elena's Brother called Michael, grows a spine and tells John of the Teams plans.

As for Sean Penn who plays Johns Brother in the film, well I am still trying to understand his part in the overall story, in my opinion Sean Penn is one of the worst actors I have ever seen, and this justified my opinion further.

In conclusion, Elena does not die at the hands of her management team, rather she opts to die with her husband in the middle of nowhere in freezing conditions, so, actually opting for a much more painful prolonged death, (her clones were all shot), her Husband John dies as well, again, freezing to death, her brother Michael also dies in the forest, but he dies alone. We can only assume and hope that Sean Penn's character dies in the plane he is a passenger off, with him ending any possible chance of a sequel.

For those who express such a film as ART, or creative brilliance, you need to lay of the alcohol.