The Door: La porte du passé

It was quite challenging, being in the states, to find this movie for my collection with decent subtitles. By far it has to be watched in its original German language. Watching the dubbed versions are horrific and kill the movie entirely. Which is a crime because this really is a very interesting and gripping film. That characters are dynamic and plot does manage to have it's twits and turns. The interactions are completely believable and, once again, Mads Mikkelsen turn in a very good performance. Then again he very very very rarely turns in a sub- par performance. Even the child actor in this is good. I can not praise this movie enough. Very high quality, in my opinion, and I'm usually pretty critical of movies. This is the international movie I show my friends when they tell me they want to watch something good from another country.

An interesting concept no doubt, 'The Door' just doesn't execute it all that well.

It starts off decently and I was interested in seeing where it would go. However, I feel like it lost its way very quickly and suddenly became rather underwhelming. The performances of Mads Mikkelsen (who's German was actually dubbed by Ingo Hülsmann, annoyingly) and Jessica Schwarz, while more than fine, don't set the film alight either - nor do any other elements of this 2009 release.

A disappointment all in all. Forgettable!

/////////// s/o the cast: Mads Mikkelsen Jessica Schwarz Valeria Eisenbart Heike Makatsch Tim Seyfi Thomas Thieme.

A film about coping with grief after the loss of a daughter. It combines drama with mystery; the tunnel into the past can be read as a symbol for the inner psychological labyrinth of a human soul, attempts to come to terms with the past to ease the pain, find a way out of despair.

A movie is a bit darker than I expected. That's not bad, but the last part of the movie is weak. And when a dark episode is weak, that looks like a comedy.

Nevertheless, it's a complex film that is definitely worth watching. Much of what makes "The Door" good can be attributed to Mads Mikkelsen's acting, who offers an impressive character performance. There is a nice depicting of father-daughter relationship.

The premise of this story is so utterly ridiculous, that you rapidly appreciate that it can go in any direction. Whatever the writers choose to pursue as the actual tale, is entirely their right.

What they do pursue, is a tense little drama based around the situation that the magic creates. The result is a dark, edgy, occasionally morbid fairy tale - one could argue that all fairy tales are like that anyway.

Mads gives his usual beautiful-teak performance (I'm sure the man has more than one act... then again, I don't really care if he does), and the supporting cast, particularly the wife and daughter, are excellent.

I did like the way the story gets on top of you, and accelerates. There is a story by Charles Stross that this movie reminds me of, but I can't give you the name without spoiling (it's also not one of his better tales I'm afraid).

Where I could possibly knock off points would be maybe in the logic, but then this isn't an SF tale, it's fantasy. It's also a little long for the tale it tells, it could have been just a bit more compressed for the content. Finally, it's just not a work that moved me - it's good, it's gripping, it's entertaining. But it's not high art.

I can recommend this film, just don't expect it to blow your mind.

One of the best European productions i have seen this year and absolutely Deutsche Grundlichkeit! Mads Mikkelsen would make Oscar material out of an airline safety video and he again is blowing is away.

When distraught artist Mikkelsen finds a door to a parallel world it looks to go his way. The story line makes sense from beginning till end in this top smart suspense script with superb performance by Danish sexiest man of the year Mikkelsen and Schwartz as his wife. This story burns slow, but fastidious, and it twists and twists and twists.

A perfect world is only one layer away from disaster is one that applies here and as said by André Maurois: a man cannot free himself from the past more easily than he can from his own body. The mundane average surroundings make you realize only half way that you are watching a master piece.