A question many viewers may have on leaving A Horrible Woman (2017)is whether the film's title is meant to be ironic or judgemental. Today's gender politics make such questions inescapably loaded but this film can also be read as a portrait of perfect complementarity between the sexes.A simple plotline keeps the focus on its two principal characters. Likeable bachelor Rasmus (Anders Juul) envies his friends' long-term relationships yet values his freedom until he meets the beautiful, vivacious, and interested Marie (Amanda Collin). They are well matched: she is forward and assertive, he is quiet and compliant. Each time she advances into his emotional space, he yields ground. She moves into his apartment and changes everything, while he squirms but is powerless to act.We observe the story through two frames: one is through the eyes of friends who envy Rasmus his good fortune; the other is through his own diminishing sense of self. The more she deploys femininity to manipulate him the more he meekly acquiesces. In two different scenes, asMarie reaches new thresholds of control, she makes eye contact with us, the viewer, in a "look at what I can do" moment. Chillingly, this conscious duplicity may also be a signal of mental illness and it leaves no doubt that Marie is conscious of her power. Rather than sympathise with her victim, his weakness tempts us to think he deserves what she dishes out. The story takes a few twists and turns through his attempts to stand up to her, but his efforts are not enough to alter the narrative arc of his emasculation.What are we to make of this unusual film? The director has been attacked as a misogynist, but the recognisability of Rasmus and Marie and their complementary characteristics makes this a broader study of relationships, rather than just another gender battle. They could have swapped gender and the story would play out with as much veracity, but perhaps less entertainment. If this is a valid litmus test, then the film rises above gender discourse.The performances of the two stars are exemplary. Amanda Collins excels across her repertoire of feminine wiles while Anders Juul is her perfect guileless pawn. The filming style is claustrophobic Nordic domestic drama, with enough black humour to lighten its load. This entertaining study of gender roles makes you wonder how the planet has survived so long.

Well - according to the Bibel they are! Eve let herself seduce by the snake in eden and ate the forbidden fruit - yet Adam did nothing to stop neither her nor himself of doing so! So who is in fact the evil of the two?This is exactly the dilemma in this new brilliant danish movie. A young man falls in love with a young attractive woman and soon find - not only his appartment - but also himself changed completely upside down. Soon not only all of his stuff, hobbies and friends are secondery in the will of his newfound love. The very man he once was seems to be too.Are women simply manipulating and evil or are men simply to weak to finally say: enough is enough?Well - I will let you (and your partner) be the judge of that. Not matter what your conclusion will be. This movie is a must see!

First, you have to thank the creators of the film for their courage in times when it is a politically correct opinion that women are the "better" people to make such a movie. There are very few countries in the world where freedom of thought and speech is as normal as in Denmark.This film is a very deep analysis of female subtle exercise of power. A film to which you can attach two more parts. I hope that this film is not only in Denmark in the cinema.It is not understandable when the critic simply asks himself if the director hates women. Even if it were so, what should be inferred from it? Is this supposed woman-hater put on the politically correct wall? There are currently hundreds of correct films about strong women fighting bad guys. Are these all male haters? It does not matter if anyone hates women or not. It's about a perfect analysis of female behavior, presented here in a comedy with much bitter truth. Not more!At the post-screening of the film in Lübeck (nordic film week), the women who spoke out praised the film very much. A psychiatric doctor (a woman...) has even confirmed that control delusion and subtle exercise of power is a typical diagnosis among women. The director's brother was very surprised ...What should love be? Is love respect or domination? A great cinematic analysis with bitter humor from a male perspective was created here.I wish all people to open their eyes and creatively allow a new sovereign and free discussion on the gender war. This film is a milestone on this meaning.

At the post-screening Q&A with the film director at the Warsaw Film Festival, I had just one thought: "what a horrible man!". While the movie is admittedly entertaining, it can't be just taken for a crafty satire and pastiche. The conversation with the film director revealed that it is personal, malicious and bitchy revenge for all the wrongs and harms done to him, his brother and all his male buddies by their ex- and current girlfriends and wives (apparently most of the scenes are based on the director's diary). No wonder that the first question from the audience (and from a male viewer!) was: "Do you hate women?"