Love how my previous entry was also about a movie, specifically those little nasty ones in the romance genre. Teddy Bear. I don't know whats up with me but I cannot rate a movie 2 3 or 4 stars. Either I love it or hate it. I think part of it is because I have the nasty tendency of seeing myself in everything. If I see myself and the message resonates... the other nasty tendency to activate my nasolacrimal ducts. This one didn't jerk my tears, it just sort of gave me hope. Mired in Dennis's brutal awkwardness, I couldn't help but cheer him on when the only thing he really wanted from Toi was to save him from the gut wrenching loneliness that was still there as he was being accosted by Thailand's finest. IDK if it was his upbringing or my own idealistic tendencies, but Dennis's refusal to sex even if Toi was kinda really cute in that thing signifies to me even more that just sex, the casual variety of intimacy, was something that Dennis has experienced and understands the fleeting nature of. Description said unexpected lesson about life and love. I think Dennis was taught what love meant the moment he stepped into that gym. Loving something or someone is being able to be or do anywhere and enjoy it just as much as you would at home. Love is the universal language that needs not for words to fail to have its place. Love brings together no matter where, no matter how and no matter who. I think this taught me and the viewer what love isn't. Love is not the absence of loneliness but rather the embracing of loneliness through companionship. Dennis's mother feels as if he does not love her because he leaves on his own whim. Dennis only leaves because he is lonely. Lonely because the companionship of a mother waits only to be replaced by matrimony. Void of matrimonial substance, Ingrid clings to her son. Love is not conditional upon loyalty to this companionship however. Love can transcend time and space. Love rends the heart while its claws lay hundreds of miles away, only to be mended with the redolent whispers of lovers, nowadays voiced over internet protocol. Love is in the letters of bygone days between the stranded and the shipwrecked.

Directed by Mads Matthiesen, who co-wrote the screenplay with Martin Zandvliet, this is a disturbing movie about a very likable guy, the teddy bear of the title.Dennis is a professional body builder, a huge hulking man who is a gentle giant of 38. He still lives with his mother in her home, and at first I thought she suffered from dementia because of the ultra politeness of Dennis's dealings with her, never arguing, doing whatever she said, sharing the bathroom with her in the mornings. However, it became clear that his mother was a controlling, very subtle monster who kept her son at a pre-school level in their relationship. Dennis is played very well by Kim Kold in what appears to be his first, maybe only movie appearance. Kold is indeed a professional body builder. His mother is played by Elsebeth Steentoft, a professional actress who is incredibly expressive without moving a muscle. Most of the cast have no other movie experience, and Matthiesen did a wonderful job getting a professional quality performance from everyone. The plot of the movie is whether Dennis can separate himself from his mother, and I found my self rooting for him along the way. His disagreements with his mother never have raised voices, are based on her subtle manipulation of his feelings toward her, and require her to keep him as her little boy. She refers occasionally to men being disappointments and to Dennis's father, whom Dennis never knew, and her greatest reproof of Dennis is to tell him that he's like his father. The struggle for control over Dennis's freedom is never out in the open.Dennis's struggle is as subtle as his mother's control, so the drama of his journey is without rage or tears. Just the lonely journey to independence that he should have taken as a boy, made more difficult by decades of manipulation by his mother. Kold does an excellent job showing the internal conflict without emoting. It's a very good movie.I have the movie on a DVD from filmmovement.com, and the DVD contains two short features by Matthiesen. I don't know whether this is one sick dude or he just likes to explore sick relationships. One of the features is "Dennis," a short version of "Teddy Bear" which shows more of the relationship between Dennis and his mother. The other feature is "Cathrine," which explores the relationship between an overweight 16-year-old girl and a 33-year-old man. As in "Dennis" and "Teddy Bear," Cathrine's parents are controlling, but you can't root for a girl to break free with a man that old -- out of the frying pan and into the fire, I fear.

I've been desiring to see this film for months. When I finally had the opportunity I was fully prepared to be swooned by a beautiful story of a lonely man just looking for love.I loved the reversal of character attributes between Dennis and his mother. The movie was set up for the transition of Dennis from his solitary shell to become a man of his own choosing.Technically this does happen as can be seen from the previews, but the way it happened was very much lack-luster in my opinion. I wanted to be moved emotionally, I wanted to get involved in the storyline.But in the end I wound up watching a very decidedly awkward relationship unfold between all the characters without any real power. The acting was very fitting, the plot was elegant, but there was no life, no desire, no emotion.This movie was more like the firework you've been saving for the time your parents aren't around only to find that it fizzles and pops rather than bangs.

Danish screenwriter and director Mads Matthiesen's feature film debut which he co-wrote with Danish screenwriter and director Martin Pieter Zandvliet, is based on his short film "Dennis" (2007) and was screened in the World Cinema Dramatic section at the 28th Sundance Film Festival in 2012. It was shot on location in Copenhagen and Omegn in Denmark and Pattaya and Bangkok in Thailand and is a Danish production which was produced by producer Morten Kjems Juhl. It tells the story about Dennis, a 38-year-old bodybuilder who lives in a suburb of Copenhagen with his mother Ingrid. After learning from his uncle Bent that it's easier to come in contact with women in Thailand than in Denmark, he tells his mother that he is attending an upcoming competition in Germany and goes on a journey.Acutely directed by Danish filmmaker Mads Matthiesen, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a genuinely heartfelt portrayal of a man's search for a girlfriend and his relationship with his mother. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions and fine cinematography by Danish cinematographer Laust Trier-Mørk, this character-driven drama depicts a insightful study of character and contains a great score by composer Sune Martin which emphasizes it's lingering atmosphere.This incisively romantic, authentic and touching story about life-altering choices and the gracefulness of human nature, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, subtle character development and continuity, endearing characters and the empathic and heartrending acting performances by Danish actor Kim Kold, actress Chanicha Shindejanichakul and Danish actress Elsebeth Steentoft. A minimalistic and poignant love-story which gained the Directing Award Mads Matthiesen at the 28th Sundance Film Festival in 2012.