It's All About Love on DVD (2003)

...it's all about heart.

blacksmoke from London, England , 27/10/2004

Thomas Vinterberg's movie FESTEN remains one of the most accomplished movies to emerge from the Dogme'95 movement (unsurprising given that he and fellow Danish film-maker Lars Von Trier wrote the original 'rules' for dogma film-making). Very few Directors are capable of developing an effective air of paranoia on screen without a driving narrative. Vinterberg has achieved this rare quality in IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE, a movie that may only have been as effective in the hands of a master such as Roman Polanski. As with FESTEN, Vinterberg's subtle fascination with distorted relationship dynamics continues here but you will need to abandon any hope of a linear story-line and clear moral outcome if you want to be rewarded by this movie.

This film hits you in the heart, not in the mind. I have no doubt that it is exactly what Vinterberg intended. Tuisand Tak.

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Chilly Love Songs

BeaHerenow from London , 27/09/2004

After reading a handful of lukewarm reviews of this film I really wasn't expecting much, so I was glad I had followed my Joaquin Phoenix obsession and rented it.

It's not going to set the world a-flame but it's no way as bad as some critics made out. If you liked Solaris, Donnie Darko, Space Odyssey, The Day After Tomorrow, The Paralax View, The X Files, Bladerunner, Paycheck, 21 Grams, Hitchcock, M Night Shyalaman, Wim Wenders, Don't Look Back, etc, then you should give it a go.

The central performances are quietly flawless, the colours are by turns lush and chilled, the direction and crisp cinematography lend the film pace and rhythm which is confident and measured and allows events to unfold - as you can tell I ended up really liking it.

I won't try to explain the plot, or tell you that it's a love story in sci-fi camouflage fatigues, because that'll put you off - but if you accept that the film is essentially true to it's own logic and go with it you'll be fine. The mood of the film is by turns sinister, sad, sweet and sexy - and although it is set in the near future it is soaked in an uneasy nostalgia for a more innocent era - thrown into unwitting counterpoint by a couple of incidental glimpses of the World Trade Center.

Add it to your list.

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Great stuff

steve from Didsbury , 07/03/2005

This film was odd, occasionally chilling, thought-provoking and moving. It was futuristic in the best sense. Rather than having people in silver suits eating meals in pill form, everything looks contemporary and yet different. The weather has gone crazy, people are dying on the streets from broken hearts (literally), and agents are cloning their stars. There is something of the family dynamic which there is in Festen - the director seems to like rooms full of middle class people being very friendly and polite to one another, but there is an undercurrent of menace and manipulation. Some bits are surreal and are not really explained, but that's cool. A really great film I thought.

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if you liked Festen...!!??!!

A customer from Gateshead, England , 16/05/2005

Well, what can I say? I loved 'Festen'...the way I found myself desperately wanting Ulrich Thomson to beat the powers of evil within his family, so I thought I'd have a look at something else of Thomas Winterberg's.

What happens when people go to Hollywood? Was it the director's choice to ultimately come up with a film like this? Did he choose the frankly appalling Claire Danes, who should simply not be entrusted with anything as remotely complex as being Polish.

This film stunk out my DVD player, my living room and my house. It would have stunk out my relationship too if I hadn't fortunately had a sneak preview of the first 10 minutes.

So, what's the problem? Not so much Joaquin Phoenix, who seems to blandly negotiate the ridiculous plot line of cloning, self-interested parties and casually ignored corpses in the street.

1 the plot - nonsense

2 Claire Danes - career-endangering performance

3 ambience of film - dead from the first second

4 drama void - Oh sorry...was I supposed to care about the central characters and their unequal struggle against the forces of self-serving, evil?

I reiterate that if you liked 'Festen', you will not like this..like me, you may fear that Hollywood can reduce even the better directors to complete and utter dross. Get out of there Thomas...or you'll end up like Lasse Halestrom, doing mawkish, badly cast nonsense for the rest of your career.

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Interesting

Gary Howe from Teddington , 13/05/2005

Someone else said 'a film i watched thinking everything would add up in the end instead i was left thinking what the hell was all that about.'

Well that's what I liked about it

:)

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Please, please do not rent this film

Adam Park from Purgatory , 13/05/2005

But go and rent the infinitely superior 'Festen'. I think the reason it fails so badly is because it fell from the dizzying height set by his previous film. A complete waist of time.

It says nothing about anything, except maybe the director disappearing up his own rectum.

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