Bedingungslos

Actually I can't agree with the rather negative user comment. I saw the movie just last week at the Fantasy Filmfest in Munich, Germany. In my opinion the movie was one of the surprising highlights at the Fantasy Filmfest. I was pleasantly surprised after watching many of the other movies at the festival. Different from many of the other films which were just splatter and blood everywhere, this movie actually had a good story, surprising twists and good actors. I liked how the actor showed the feelings of many people: not wanting to be normal and having some more exciting things happening in his life. He actually had a good life with a wife, kids, nice flat, but something was just missing. I think a lot of people feel like this. And best of all: The ending is great!

This movie is everything that reminds me why I love movies. I came across it unwittingly as I stood outside a remote movie hall in New York and was drawn to its English title, "Just Another Love Story". One glance at the poster told me it was anything but that. A man, stands with a gun drawn over a dead man in a pool of blood. Time wasn't wasted. Tickets were bought. Seats occupied.

The movie begins like promised with a series of numbered love scenes. Except that it was hardly love. It begins with the protagonist's narrative of how it all ends and then we are thrown into his life, abruptly as we come in terms with the brutality of what he does, boring mundaneness of how he lives and how he is suddenly, unwittingly drawn into a passionate love, an exotic fantasy and a forbidden life that he claims as his own.

And as we follow him through a sensory overload of events, we are both repulsed and strangely attracted to his actions. The guilty pleasure of enjoying something really despicable. There is always a woman, the protagonist says, and there is one here. One, we are as much mesmerized with, as is the protagonist. Cleverly written, the characters often dwell in the intricacies of metafiction. A woman and a mystery are the ideal ingredients of a movie, one of the characters says sarcastically. A good shot, says the protagonist in another scene which is a classic film noir shot if any ever is.

The background score is brilliant, alternating between a slow haunting acoustic guitar, to a symphony of sorts as we move through the protagonist's life. The script is fresh and pulsating with energy as we laugh one second and are repulsed the very next. If a movie can make you grimace, laugh and bite you nails with apprehension and wonder at the intelligent sharp exchange of dialog, it is one that has managed to make its mark. This particular movie has surpassed the mark.

Acting by the lead characters is ace. The confrontation scene between the protagonist and his opposite number is fletched out stunningly. Fragments of each life are shown to you, and as you put everything together and move towards what is a stunning climax, you realize somewhat surprised, that this movie is exactly what it promised to be.

Just another love story.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." I wish I had a dollar for every occasion when that thought has crossed someone's mind. But first some background. Is modern life in an affluent European country (with its taxpayer-funded health, education and welfare) rather too comfortable, rather too safe, rather too unchallenging, rather too dull, for some individuals? Our ancient ancestors developed genes for taking risks, sometimes awful risks, simply to survive. Julia Castlund, daughter of a wealthy publisher, ought to be able to settle down to a life of fulfilment and contentment in modern, enlightened Denmark - but no, she's a fidgety, rebellious risk-taker, with a history of perilously unsuitable boyfriends. The latest news her family has had from her is that she's roaming round the Far East - Cambodia or Vietnam or somewhere - and her current love interest is a Dane she's met out there called Sebastian (no details as to what he does for a living).

Meanwhile, in the heavily mortgaged suburbs, Jonas lives in a comfortable home with his nice wife and two lovely children. He has a steady job (not very well paid) as a crime-scene photographer for the police. Jonas wouldn't do anything irrational or impulsive - would he? If there's one thing he's learned in this job, it's that horrific outcomes sometimes occur when people make impulsive choices, perhaps quite "trivial" choices. And one of the reasons why bodies end up on a slab in the morgue is "love gone wrong" - be warned. There's a sharp disconnect between Jonas's agreeable domestic life and the ghastly events he has to photograph: mutilated bodies, murdered children, etc.

If Jonas is going to keep this family car, he really ought to spend some serious money on it - it's been giving a lot of trouble. On a busy road it conks out, and he can't get it started again. A preoccupied driver, going fairly fast, swerves to avoid this obstacle and collides with a vehicle coming the other way. The driver is Julia. What's she doing back in Denmark? Now she's in intensive care. Jonas feels responsible, guilty. He goes to the hospital, but he's not allowed to see her because he's not "family". She's in a coma, and several family members are gathered around her bed. Jonas has a bright idea. He gains entry to the room by pretending to be Sebastian (it seems like a good plan at the time). The family are delighted to see him - partly because he looks like a normal sort of guy, and not one of the weirdos that Julia usually dates. "Talk to her, Sebastian. See if you can get her to wake up." And she does wake up, sort of, with amnesia and seriously impaired eyesight, her face hacked about by broken glass, and with tubes stuck in her orifices. And Jonas falls in love...

He does what? You make one silly little "mistake", and your whole life has to spin out of control? Apparently so. Jonas obtains this suitcase that Julia had in her car. A police colleague tells him about an Interpol notification: it looks like Sebastian was shot and killed in Hanoi - but why? Some bad guys were after him? The title "Just Another Love Story" is ironic. It's more than a love story, it's more than one love story, and at least one of its love stories is decidedly unusual. On the other side of the coinage of love is death, nightmare, a journey to the underworld, a ride to that slab in the morgue. It's not clear that anything is going to be inevitable - until it happens. And then you can see the inevitability. For the alert viewer, there are some nice "Now I understand" moments, and some nice "Ah, that's what must have happened" moments (you may have the opportunity to see this movie twice). All this and more - much more. Altogether, a thoroughly satisfying film.

This film could have been based on a novel written by Harlan Coben or Donald Westlake. In fact, Ole Bournedal (writer/director) has recently been tapped to direct Dean Koontz's novel, "The Husband". JUST ANOTHER LOVER STORY contains all the elements of classic noir fiction, and incorporates a fresh and modern cinematographic style. The film centers on a man who jettisons his humdrum existence for the love of a mysterious woman. Add amnesia, a murder-suicide, stolen diamonds, The Asian Mafia, and set the action in beautiful Denmark, and you have the essence of JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY. This is not a great film, but it accomplishes every challenge, and is a very positive addition to Danish cinema, and the Film Noir Genre in general.

Just Another Love Story (2007)

Wow, what a great movie. Very European in how it is shot and constructed, and in the realism of the acting. But this is not a "realistic" movie like some of the gritty fictional movies that tend to look like real life, horrors and all. This alternates a highly realistic acting with a layered and deliberately constructed structure to make for an aesthetic experience as well as a narrative one.

The plot is involved and is too easily given away, but the meat of it is that a well meaning, likable guy finds that an opportunity to become someone else comes along and it is too tempting to pass up. But only sometimes. And with some hidden strings attached, naturally. His experience in both pairs of shoes is transcendent for him, and worth the sacrifice it seems.

It all begins when his car stalls and the car behind him swerves and gets into an accident of its own. He goes to help the driver--a beautiful young woman who has sight problems and amnesia in her recovery.

This might sound like a movie convenience, but it's not. The intensity of what follows, and the way the actors make it believable, is stunning. In the simplest form of a recommendation I would say: see this film. It's different without being affected. It's honest and realistic without becoming reality. It moves and intrigues all the way through.

A Danish film set mostly in Copenhagen, "Just Another Love Story" is not just another love story a bit. Look for something magical, inventive, and extremely well made.