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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Danish > Controversy > Violence > Revenge > In A Better World (2010/Sony Blu-ray w/DVD)

In A Better World (2010/Sony Blu-ray w/DVD)

 

Picture: B/C+     Sound: B/B-     Extras: B     Film: B+

 

 

Susanne Bier has been a very successful filmmaker worldwide, yet despite winning two Best Foreign Film Academy Awards, too few in the U.S. seem to know who she is.  She made the original version of Brothers in 2004 (later remade with Jake Gyllenhaal) as well as After The Wedding and Things We Lost In The Fire.  A talented artist, In a Better World (2010) was one of those Oscar winners and it might well be her best film yet.  It is certainly an amazing one.

 

Also called “The Revenge”, the film is about two families with sons about the same age who befriend each other in school.  One named Elias (Juel Nielsen) has his parents divorced, both who are doctors, but he is the target of hateful, mean treatment at school.  The other son named Christian (William Johnk Nielson) is angry in advance and when the group also targets him, he persuades the first victim to get revenge on the head bully.  They do to the shock of the school, but this is not enough.

 

The doctor/father doctor Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) is traveling to Africa from Denmark to help the poor and needy in a somewhat dangerous ‘doctors without borders’ type arrangement which has made his perspective uniquely grounded, including when it comes to violence.  He tries to teach his sons how limited violence is, which is challenged one day when his younger son gets into a fight with a child at a sandbox and he breaks it up.  The father of the other child is an angry jerk who accuses Anton of touching his child and slaps him a few times.  Anton purposely does not swing back.  Elias is unhappy and Christian suggests they go after that man!

 

What could have been a shallow revenge film is so much more and has much bigger observations to make and things to say than I ever expected.  It is a brave, sometimes brilliant film that has something to say and reminds me of the kinds of important films Hollywood once made many, many years ago.  Bier may have hit a new personal high and breakthrough as a filmmaker that is hopefully the beginning of a golden period for her.  The acting is great, script top rate and I can see why this has had all the raves it has as it more than deserves them.

 

In a Better World is great filmmaking anyone serious about pure cinema must see!!!

 

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer was shot in 35mm film by Director of Photography Morten Soborg, D.F.F., and it looks great throughout save some minor instances of softness, some of which can be attributed to its style.  The use of the scope frame puts so many such films of late to shame it is not even funny and it even has some demo shots serious home theater fans will want to see.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD is comparatively much weaker, though the cinematography really needs Blu-ray to bring out how good this can really look.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) Danish 5.1 lossless mix is dialogue based, but nicely recorded and mixed throughout with a good, warm, consistent soundfield down to ambient sound and fine music score by Johan Soderquist.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the DVD is good, but not as rich as the Blu-ray’s mix.

 

Extras include BD Live interactive functions, Deleted Scenes that all could have stayed in (very rare these days), on camera interview with Director Bier and feature length audio commentary track with Bier and the fine editor Pernille Bech Christensen.

 

For more on Bier’s films, try these links:

 

After The Wedding

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5646/After+The+Wedding+(2006)

 

Things We Lost In The Fire. 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6796/Things+We+Lost+In+The+Fire+(2007/

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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