If the above sounds an unfamiliar and unlikely title for a movie, you can be forgiven for not recognising it, since the film in question from Danish director Susanne Bier was released to the English-speaking world as "Love is All You Need". This may be a sappier sounding title, but the above original intrigues. It is also accurate -- albeit unappetizing.
The film's female lead, played by Trine Dyrholm, has just completed a hospital course of chemotherapy and is waiting to learn if her cancer has been contained. She works as a hairdresser and a glamourous blonde wig disguises the fact that she is currently as bald as a coot. She goes home and is horrified to find her husband, Kim Bodnia, humping away on top of his young mistress. Now, in the normal course of things I could accept this scenario as a stepping stone for the action to follow. However, since obsessively watching 'Scandinavian Noir' TV series has become part of my recent way of life, I had trouble accepting Dyrholm's conniving art gallery owner from "The Legacy" being married to Bodnia, the Danish cop partnering the Asperger-ish Swedish cop Saga from "The Bridge". When one has spent several years and several series in the company of these actors, their characters become quite rooted in one's mind. It would be like discovering that Ted Danson's Sam Malone is actually married to Lisa Kudrow's Phoebe Buffay!
But I digress... Dyrholm's Ida (not-so-cute) meets Philip (Pierce Brosnan) when she bashes into his car (several times) in an airport parking garage. It seems they are both en route to Italy where his son is about to marry her daughter. They end up travelling together, and since everything is going wrong for her at present, the airline manages to lose her suitcase for good measure. Brosnan is a workaholic widower, still mourning his long-dead Danish wife, and a very distant father to his son. Now the whole family must come together for the current happy event, which includes his man-eating sister-in-law Paprika Steen (first seen in 1998's "Festen") and Bodnia, who has brought along his loud-mouthed and slutty paramour.
The scene is set for several family show-downs as well as the growing friendship between Ida and Philip, starting when the middle-aged Dyrholm bravely emerges from her sea-swim totally nude and bald. The various ugly tensions, especially between Ida's soldier son and her boorish husband, are counterpointed by the beautiful sunny Italian scenery and the promise of gracious living. In the end, for reasons that I won't disclose, there is no wedding and the cast of characters go their separate ways. Back in Denmark, Bodnia begs Ida to take him back -- and reluctantly she agrees to do so. However Brosnan (or James Bond/Remington Steele) can't forget Ida, turns up at her beauty parlour, and agrees to open the letter she has received from the hospital but has been too timid to open herself. He wants to spend his life with her, whether it's for years, or months, or weeks. The End!
Director Bier has created a warm and ultimately moving family drama -- and one roots for the two refreshingly mature leads to realise that happiness awaits them, despite previous traumas. I've seen a number of the director's films over the years and they are usually complex and satisfying dramas. However, her most recent directorial stint was for the not completely satisfying BBC serialisation of John Le Carre's "The Night Manager" starring that bloody, omnipresent Tom Hiddleston (see below).
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