Susanne Bier first came to my attention when her "In a Better World" won Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards in 2011. I haven't see that one but I did see her "Serena", starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. I only now got around to seeing her Academy Award-nominated "Efter brylluppet" ("After the Wedding" in English).The focus is Jacob, a man from Denmark running an orphanage in Bombay. With the orphanage running short of funds, a Danish company offers to donate money to keep it open, provided that Jacob returns to Denmark to collect it. It's while he's in Denmark that the plot begins to unfold, as events there connect to Jacob's past.If you've seen any Scandinavian movies, you probably know that they tend to have a gloomy side (ironic for the region known as the most pleasant part of the world). This movie is no exception. The interactions between the various characters elicit all sorts of unpleasant memories. One might say that the conversations are a form of brutality. The wedding might be a happy event, but there's a lot of things that Jacob, Jørgen, Helene and the others have to work out in the meantime.Since I haven't seen most of Bier's movies, I can't compare this to them. All that I can say is that the movie hits you like a kick in the gut, so I hope to see the rest of her movies. There are some outstanding performances here, both in terms of dialogue and how the facial expressions sometimes tell the story. Mads Mikkelsen, Rolf Lassgård, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Stine Fischer Christensen, and the rest do a fine job. I recommend it.

Susanne Bier in "after the wedding" reveals a deliciously deep and emotional enigma of big impact that attracts the audience from the start, Bier's storytelling technique are in fact engaging.It is the skills of the director to manipulate our emotions as viewers what makes this film so wonderfully unique in my opinion, With the inclusion of a cross-cultural perspective not typically seen in Nordic cinema.A distinctive aspect of the film is the use of raw emotion, a factor rarely seen in this way in Hollywood movies for example, Much of this quality can be attributed to the actors and actresses of the film. Mads Mikkelsen did a great job interpreting Jacob a man who left his orphanage in Copenhagen (which he owned)to meet with a wealthy man named Jorgen, played by Rolf Lassgård to receive financial aid for his orphanage situated in one of the poorest regions of India.Jorgen then decides to invite Jacob to his daughter's wedding which takes place the same day at night. While there, the audience discovers a special secret, which turns out to be an emotional bomb for both Jacob and to other members of the wedding.The film really shines in its use of emotion to drive the story. In fact, the most intense moments of the film take place after marriage. Jacob, who previously intended to return to India to participate in the 8th birthday of his adopted son, is faced with the need to make tough decisions ...After the wedding is different from other films because the viewer can connect in an emotionally engaging way. Through its unusual camera work, but mostly through effective and wonderful editing tricks, "After the Wedding" becomes a refreshing film with interesting perspectives and with a compelling plot, Susanne Bier produced a wonderful piece. Do not let this movie be a secret, See it. My Vote is 8.Title (Portugal): Not available

Susanne Bier's After the Wedding (2006) is a film that wants to be more than it is. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, After the Wedding (original title Efter brylluppet ) follows Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen), a Danish man who helps run an underfunded orphanage in India. Reluctantly, Jacob is sent back to Copenhagen in the hopes of securing a large donation from the wealthy businessman Jorgen (Rolf Lassgård) only to slowly realize that Jorgen has singled him out for a specific--and personal--reasons. Ultimately, it's a superficial movie that tries its best at playing deep, a film that never quite achieves the emotional impact for which it strives. After the Wedding starts off being a movie about how Jacob can't stand rich people. When told that their teacher is going to be sent to the rich-in-comparison land of Denmark, the children at Jacob's orphanage note his distaste of the wealthy. One boy says to Jacob, "Is it because the houses are far apart and the people are far apart?" This is about as profound as the film ever gets. When Jacob arrives in Copenhagen, the film shifts from being about the political to being about the personal. Jacob meets Jorgen, who at first seems to represent the sort of suave, detached rich man that Jacob despises. However, as the film lumbers forward Jorgen turns out to be a less sinister yet also a less interesting character in an almost lazily written transition. Jorgen is not the manipulative businessman looking for an easy way to buy some publicity, but, in fact, the husband of Jacob's ex-girlfriend, Helene (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and the man who raised Helene and Jacob's daughter (Stine Fischer Christensen), a child Jacob never knew existed until he attended her wedding at Jorgen's invitation. The film meditates on these messy familial relationships for a hot second before revealing what the audience has already guessed fifteen minutes ago, that Jorgen is actually dying and has called Jacob back to Denmark to take his place as the man of the family. The main weakness of After the Wedding is its thin script that presents a variety of familiar (dare I say cliché) themes without fully delving into any of them in a way that elevates them from mere banality. For instance, the idea of a man meeting his daughter for the first time after 22 years, the agony of a father organizing his life in preparation for his own death, the tenuous rekindling of a romance with the one that got away, and the struggle to provide aid and resources for underprivileged children are all perfectly fine topics that get thrown together and promptly skirted over in this film. Rather than taking the time to develop any of these themes with any sort of nuance or inventiveness, Bier simply plops them down into the movie and moves on to the next thing as if the audience is expected to have some sort of emotional reaction at just at the mention of these "serious" topics. Instead of communicating heart wrenching truths through the sort of strong writing that paves the way for arresting acting performances, Bier scrounges for emotion in a never ending stream of close-up shots of both human and (yikes) dead animal eyes. In a word, there's a lack of depth and artfulness to the screenplay and the film as a whole. It's a shame that Mads Mikkelsen's stoic stare isn't put to better use. That's not to say that After the Wedding is a disaster. There are some charming moments that arise from Bier's use of parallels in the movie, for example. In one such moment, the camera lingers on Jacob's nervous habits, (wiping the scuffs from his dress shoes, shifting his feet, hand tapping) and then closes in on similar anxious tics expressed by his daughter, Anna, thus visually portraying their heredity. Moreover, another parallel occurs when the camera pays special attention to Jorgen zipping up the coat of one of his young sons, only to show Jacob doing the same thing later in the film after Jorgen's metaphorical passing of the torch has been made clear. Sure, maybe these parallels could do with a bit more subtlety, but they're just clever enough that they inspire confidence that Bier at least has some sense of direction for the film. However, these strong moments are not enough to tip the balance in Bier's favor. All in all, After the Wedding is an unremarkable film bogged down by mediocre screen writing and an overeager desire for a quantity of ideas over quality.

After the Wedding: An Unexpectedly Touching Familial Drama "Every acquaintance, every friend, every person who has a place in your heart, it is the time with them that really means something. Nothing else matters". These words, spoken by the masterfully played Jørgen (Rolf Lassgård), sum up the main message of the Danish, Oscar nominated film, After the Wedding. In the hands of a director less skilled than Susanne Bier, After the Wedding may come across as an overblown, soap opera-like melodrama. Instead, Bier uses these cutting emotional moments to develop her characters and their motivations. After the Wedding explores the relationships between wealth and poverty, what it means to be a family, and the individual's role in a larger picture.The film opens with a stoic as ever Mads Mikkelson playing Jacob, the closed off but compassionate manager of an Indian orphanage. Jacob must face the grim reality that without proper funding, his beloved orphanage will close, and the only way to secure the money is for Jacob to travel back to Denmark to confer with a potential benefactor, Jørgen Lennart Hannson. Jørgen promises to consider funding the project–but only if Jacob agrees to attend his daughter's wedding the next day. Why did Jacob leave Denmark 20 years ago? Why is Jørgen orchestrating this event? "Too much fits together too well," comments Jørgen's wife (and as we soon find out, Jacob's ex-lover). The audience is inclined to agree. But what follows is a touching exploration of familial ties.The initial scenes of Copenhagen provide a stark juxtaposition between Denmark's wealth and the abject poverty of Mumbai (all of the orphans could live comfortably in Jacob's hotel room). The audience instinctively sides with Jacob and his feelings of disgust with his own country. The bright colors of the city contrast with the poverty in which most of the residents live. But despite their lack of wealth, the community cares deeply for its members. Jacob has settled into a niche here, formed a cobbled together family with the young orphan Pramod, who he has raised since birth.Initially, Jacob is loath to leave the warm family he has created, believing his home country to be full of disinterested and disingenuous people ("Is it because the houses are far apart that the people are far apart?" Pramod asks Jacob before he leaves). Things become far more muddled when Jacob discovers that he isn't as alone in Denmark as he thought, and the wedding to which he was invited is that of the daughter he never knew existed. But as Jacob begins to embrace his new family, his personal ties to India began to disintegrate. Perhaps most significant is when Jacob, instead of returning to Mumbai by Pramod's birthday as he promised, spends the time in Copenhagen, getting to know his biological daughter, Anna (a moment when they flip through her old photo album together is especially touching).Jørgen, the man that Jacob instinctively despised, was the driving force that brought him and Anna together. Jørgen is at once dominant, manipulative, and as likable as he is infuriating. As the film progresses and we understand his motives, we began to sympathize more and more with him. Jørgen's character raises the question of how much money can buy. Can a person with money and ideals exist? "I'm buying remission for my sins," Jørgen says of his bargain with Jacob, a bargain that would force Jacob to remain in Denmark to serve as the patriarch of Jørgen's family. Though Jacob initially refuses, he begins to question his decision, especially when Anna finds herself lost and alone after her new husband cheats on her.What is more important to a cause, a man, or his money? At one point, Jacob is even directly asked: "think of how many you could help, won't you sell yourself for that?" Ultimately, he does, and discovers that he is somewhat dispensable. Upon returning to India, Jacob invites Pramod to return with him to Denmark, but Pramod refuses. Things are looking up for the orphanage, and remaining in the now well functioning institution with all of his friends means more to him than beginning a new life with Jacob somewhere else.My one complaint is that India seems to play more of a vibrant and exotic backdrop in the film more than anything more substantial. As soon as Jacob arrives in Denmark, it fades into the distance, save for the occasional glimpse of a sad eyed child on the video Jacob brought with him. A place that a person spent 20 years of their life building wouldn't disappear so easily. If the film had a few more scenes exploring the complexity of Jacob's cognitive dissonance and his ties to India, it would pack an even larger emotional punch.