Ravn (Peter Gantzler) is a Danish entrepreneur who, due to an almost pathological need to be liked by everyone, has trouble effectively managing the employees who work for him. To overcome this deficiency, he devises an elaborate ruse, one that involves hiring an out-of-work actor (Jens Albinus) to pose as a fictitious company president whose job it will be to both bark out the orders and deflect any blowback that might come his way from the disgruntled workers. At first, Kristoffer goes along with the plan, convincing the staff that he is indeed the CEO of the firm and that he actually knows what it is he's talking about when it comes to implementing and enforcing company policy. Yet, slowly, Kristoffer comes to suspect that Ravn may not be quite as pure in heart or benign in his motives as the young actor was initially led to believe. Eventually, Kristoffer has to decide just how far he's willing to go with this charade if carrying it to its completion means backstabbing the very people he's actually come to care about in the short time he's been working there.Like virtually all of Lars Van Trier's work, the highly satirical "The Boss of it All," is an acquired taste, one that demands a degree of patience from the viewer - along with a rather high threshold for pretentiousness - before it can be fully understood and appreciated. And, indeed, the first half of the film makes for rather rough sailing as we attempt to descry, through all the verbal fog and cinematic obscurity, just what it is that Van Trier is trying to accomplish. We know it has something to do with skewering the whole corporate-world-mentality thing, but the extreme verbosity and self-conscious film-making style go a long ways towards muddling the message.But, damned if the whole thing doesn't somehow manage to pull itself together long about the midway point and we cruise safely to our admittedly unexpected destination. Part of the reason for the turnabout is that Van Trier is finally able to crystallize his theme once Kristoffer realizes he has a serious moral decision to make and when it starts becoming unclear which "boss" is really pulling the strings - i.e. who is the puppeteer and who the puppet, who the scenarist and who the actor - in this oddball relationship.I've never been overly fond of Van Trier's self-conscious stylistic hallmarks - jump-cuts, catawampus framing, self-referential, film-within-a-film narration - since they serve mainly to call attention to the filmmaker and to throw us out of the drama he's showing us. Still, there are moments when the dark, tongue-in-cheek humor successfully hits its mark, and Van Trier does a nice job dovetailing his parody of the theater into his satire on business. And the unexpected ending demonstrates that none of us is truly above selling out those we care for if the price is right for doing so.

The Boss of it All, Lars Von Trier's latest film to be released in the UK, is a surprisingly effective comedy, in which the director cleverly skewers the slippery hierarchy and buck-passing in business culture. The film is largely set in the offices of a Danish IT firm managed by one Ravn (Peter Gantzler), who supposedly reports to a never-before-seen superior. Ravn is actually at the top of the command chain, but has invented another level in the company hierarchy so that he can credit unpopular decisions to 'the boss of it all.'When Ravn decides to sell the firm to an Icelandic competitor, he needs the boss to put in an appearance, and consequently hires an actor, Kristoffer (Jens Albinus), to play the part. Complications ensue as Kristoffer inherits the ill will and misunderstanding generated by Ravn under the boss's guise. Kristoffer's encounters with 'the six', the original employees used by Ravn to start up the firm, are both painful and hilarious to watch, as the bewildered actor muddles through love affairs, ducks out of punch-ups and squirms through boardroom meetings in which he has as little clue as we do about what the business does.Ravn and Kristoffer's meetings outside the office give rise to some very funny set pieces outside of the office (including some superb visual gags at the zoo). Ravn's scheming personality is increasingly exposed and Kristoffer grows increasingly confident in his acting. This is a film where the story adds layer upon layer to the comedy: it gets funnier and funnier as the plot thickens. The finale, where Kristoffer wrestles with Ravn, 'the six', the Icelandic magnate and his interpreter, and even himself, is the film's glorious high point, culminating in one moment of outstanding absurdity.Roughly edited and devoid of musical backing, this is both funny and thought-provoking cinema. That Von Trier interrupts on occasion to remind us we are just watching a story is thus puzzling and unnecessary. This remains however a minor quibble with an excellent film.

As a fan of Von Trier's other works, I am trying hard to identify the merits of this movie. But no matter how hard I try, I am left with nothing. I will not refer to this release as a motion picture or a movie. The correct classification for me would be staged footage, because that is what it feels like. A full length recording of Danish actors with no lines and no script, walking around in an office building. There is no chemistry or dynamics between the actors. Everything feels incredibly stiff and uncoordinated. There is no comedy. No delivery. No storyline. No point. I want a ticket refund.Watching the unedited silent surveillance tapes of a gas station counter in Uzbekistan would be at least twice as much fun as watching Direktøren For Det Hele.

This will be a little hard to understand, for those who are not familiar with Scandinavian office culture and enterprise democracy. For those who are, it's funny.The unemployed actor gets a job. He's supposed to act as executive, during some sensitive business with an Icelandic buyer. It doesn't develop like he has imagined, but in fact it doesn't develop like anyone has imagined.There's lots of kicking here in every direction and not at least against cultural snobbism. It's von Trier back to the basics, but not that easy to grip for people outside a Scandinavian environment.