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OPEN HEARTS Send This Review to a Friend
The Danish import "Open Hearts," directed by Susanne Bier in accordance with the bare-bones style of the Dogme movement, is fascinatingly intimate in dramatizing what happens to two couples in the wake of a tragic accident that shakes up their lives. By the end of the film it is as if we really know the principals, and Bier and screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen don't indulge in easy ways out.
One day Marie (Paprika Steen), driving with her daughter in the car, runs down Joachim (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a young man with everything to live for. About to me married to Cecilie (Sonja Richter), he finds himself paralyzed from the neck down as a result of the accident. He is so angry and resentful that he rejects Cecilie's efforts to be supportive and drives her away. He is bitter and lets out his feelings with nasty diatribes unleashed at his nurse.
Marie and her husband Niels (Mads Mikkelsen), who is a doctor at the hospital where Joachim is being treated, attempt kindness toward Cecilie. But she is vulnerable and needy and before long she is enticing Niels, who falls for her while trying to keep up the pretense of his marriage. It's a matter of how long before the situation explodes in all directions.
Although the drama has the ingredients of soap opera, it doesn't become that because of the quality of the acting and the intensity that is achieved by the very intimate, raw approach to the filming. The Dogme rules forbid frills, and though there are a few useless artsy touches, the film is almost entirely a stark depiction of the characters and their entanglements. "Open Hearts" is mature filmmaking and good, strong drama. A Newmarket Films release.
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