Synopsis
The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.
2010 ‘Hævnen’ Directed by Susanne Bier
The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.
Mikael Persbrandt Trine Dyrholm Ulrich Thomsen William Jøhnk Nielsen Markus Rygaard Martin Buch Anette Støvelbæk Kim Bodnia Tina Gylling Mortensen Stig Hoffmeyer Camilla Bendix Birthe Neumann Susanne Juhász Elsebeth Steentoft Bodil Jørgensen Wil Johnson Eddy Kimani Emily Mglaya Gabriel Muli Mary Hounu Moat June Waweru Emil Nicolai Helms Rikke Louise Andersson Lars Kaalund Jesper Lohmann Paw Henriksen Preben Harris Lars Bom Mary Nduku Mbai Show All…
Civilisation, 文明社会, 爱有新世界, I En Bedre Verden, Hämnden, In A Better World, In un mondo migliore, In einer besseren Welt, En un mundo mejor, Em um Mundo Melhor, Daha İyi Bir Dünyada, Месть, Revenge, Lepší svět, 更好的世界, Egy jobb világ, Kosto, בעולם טוב יותר, Într-o lume mai bună, 인 어 베러 월드, Em Um Mundo Melhor, W lepszym świecie, В един по-добър свят, Ίσως, Αύριο!, Geresniame pasaulyje, Помста, შურისძიება, 未来を生きる君たちへ, En un món millor
Action!: The Flattening Society of Susanne Bier
Another fantastic film that showcases Bier’s unparallel skills to craft this incredible human drama. Also, Mikael Persbrandt’s Anton has to be one of the best examples of not only a dad but a man. He has his flaws, sure, but it takes a lot to not beat Bodnia’s a$$.
The friendship between Christian and Elias was interesting and opened the door for plenty of very tense moments. Ultimately, the movie seems to want to paint it as something more complex and kinda good, but I feel they went a little too far with making Christian come up as a complete sociopath that I wasn’t convinced by his story arc at the end, and…
Winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, In a Better World (also known as Hævnen) is a Danish drama that tells the story of two separate families, which is going through a tough time and focuses on the budding friendship between their two kids, who are equally troubled by what's brewing inside their homes.
Co-written & directed by Susanne Bier, In a Better World explores the themes of revenge & forgiveness and is crafted with care & dedication. The screenplay handles the dynamics of the two families quite well, sensibly portraying their separate conflicts but it's the friendship between the two kids and how it's handled that makes up for the picture's best part.
The technical aspects are nicely executed with…
Although uneven in its composition and sometimes unclear in its objectives until they are explained in the last 20 minutes, Hævnen is not one, but two messages of transcontinental value, one of personal decisions regarding moral, the other one of family distance in the presence of death and loss. The relevant message here regarding the families is that adult problems, mishandled priorities and break-ups are troubles destined to be transmitted to their children unless they are taken care of beforehand.
Despite I would have liked to see more tied loose ends, the final product still invites to reflection. The strongest points are solid performances by the entire cast, including the youngest actors, and a respectable cinematography, factors that gave some extra points and making it reach a 4-star score by a marginal difference.
77/100
Like it or not, this will always be the movie that allowed Bird Box lady to accept an Oscar over Alejandro Iñárritu, Yorgos Lanthimos, our lord and saviour Denis Villeneuve, and some fourth guy. But does it stand on its own? Mostly, but there was still a large part of me that thinks Susanne Bier had just watched Babel and thought, "Yeah... I could do something like that." I think it's the grimy presentation of an intense story placing so much focus on pain and death that brought me to that conclusion.
On the whole though, In A Better World just comes off as a bit too sentimentally-driven for my taste. A story like this needs an Iñárritu to dig…
Surprisingly kind of cheesy especially given the subject matter, but still enjoyed it a lot nonetheless. Both child actors are really solid and I'm always a sucker for movies about troubled youth. And boy these kids are troubled. Definitely did not expect this movie to be as dark as it was, but the final thirty minutes are definitely really powerful.
On the other hand, I feel like this film has two separate storylines that Susanne Bier struggled to merge in a cohesive way. They are both good stories separately, but it doesn't fully come together.
It's a Danish thriller drama that sees a doctor Anton (played by a fantastic Mikael Persbrandt), split his work between his home country, and visiting a war torn area in Sudan under constant attacks from a warlord.
Meanwhile, his family life back home threatens to spiral dangerously out of control...
If you in any way fancy a watch, don't read up on it any more - just watch it. Some seriously powerful images, and an utterly compelling story that twists and turns throughout.
It won Best Foreign Language Film at both the Oscars AND the Golden Globes and very deservedly so.
Un desastre, de los buenos.
Existe aquí un lío argumental, todo un cóctel de temas con exceso de subrayado y gran falta de cohesión, tanto que por momentos pareciera que vi más de una película.
Es una obra reflexiva, de grandes valores morales y humanos que aúnque tienda demasiado a caer en lo autocomplaciente logra reflexiones hermosas y honestas sobre la violencia, la disfunción familiar y el acoso.
La fuerza de las interpretaciones y la destreza técnica elevan considerablemente su ímpetu por encima de la media.
Ganadora del Oscar a mejor película extranjera en unos de los años más débiles para el cine.
Nota: B-
Expone con perfecto dominio una constelación de temas, conectados entre sí por el principal: la violencia.
In a Better World contrasta la violencia sofisticada del mundo acomodado con la violencia brutal del mundo hambriento y empobrecido.
Beautifully shot but the storytelling between the two sides never quite cohered for me despite some individually striking moments. The Oscar really should’ve gone to Incendies.
¨No one will dare hit me now.¨
Haevnen is the Danish film directed by Susanne Bier (Things We Lost in the Fire) that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture in 2011. My personal vote would have gone to the Canadian film, Incendies, which I thought was a masterpiece, but In a Better World is still a great film. I`m not sure if the translation ¨Haevnen¨ from Danish to English really means In a Better World but I thought this title fit the film perfectly considering how our actions really affect the world we live in a positive or negative way. We have the power to act in revenge against those who hurt us or we can decide to forgive…
This Danish film directed by Susanne Bier won Best Foreign Film of 2010, beating the submissions by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Denis Villeneuve (and Rachid Bouchareb, but who cares). I find it odd that her career has stagnated since, her two most recent films are Serena (2014) and Bird Box (2018). Those were the only ones I had seen, and now I’m curious to check out the rest of her career.
About the quality of the film, I thought it was going to be a simple family drama, but it ends up being an extremely disturbing story of children dealing with bullying and grief, and the murders of pregnant women in Sudan. “How do we respond to violence?” is the question raised by the film, and it explores it in thought-provoking ways.
All the posters fucking suck, it’s not too late to make a good one.
Suzanne Bier’s Oscar-winning exploration of vengeance and cheek-turning, it’s accomplished and handsome, with another fiery performance from Trine Dyrholm. But what exactly is its point?
Specifically, how does the grief of well-to-do white Europeans allegedly parallel with the subjugation of impoverished Africans being literally gutted like fish by a necrophiliac warlord? Why is she crosscutting between the two as if they’re commenting on each other in some substantive way? There’s a base-level parallel, sure, but it requires the discounting of class, race, and centuries of politics to maintain.
To the movie’s credit, it creates a believable portrait of forgiveness in Anton, a doctor who faces violence with calm insight into what it means to the perpetrator, into the instant karma of violence. Mikael Persbrandt plays him warmth and a gently penetrating gaze. He anchors two stories, both relevant and finely wrought; but it makes little sense to have them mirroring each other.