IN A BETTER WORLD (Susanne Bier). See listing. Rating: NNNN
Two families cope with matters of morality and vengeance in another intense entry from Bier (Brothers, After The Wedding), winner of the 2011 Oscar for best foreign-language film.
Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen), full of fury after his mother dies, turns to revenge as a means of getting control over his life. He begins a friendship with Elias (Markus Rygaard), whose dad (Mikael Persbrandt) is off practising medicine in Africa – gorgeous sequences there – and who is the school bully’s prime target. After he takes care of Elias’s nemesis, Christian looks for bigger fish to fry.
Persbrandt is superb as the good doctor trying to resist violence, and Bier expertly ramps up the tension in this intelligent meditation on masculinity, family and accountability.
