Love is All You Need

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Kim Bodnia | Molly Blixt Egelind | Paprika Steen | Pierce Brosnan | Sebastian Jessen | Trine Dyrholm

Original language title: Den skaldede frisør

Country: denmark, france, germany, italy, sweden

Year: 2013

Running time: 116

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1854236/

Thom says: “Bier will be familiar to serious film-goers after such memorable features as OPEN HEARTS, THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE, AFTER THE WEDDING, BROTHERS, & IN A BETTER WORLD and this delightful romp adds to her resume. The story is rife with delicious comic details and Bier milks it for all its worth. A hairdresser finishing up her cancer treatments discovers her husband is cheating on her just before she leaves to Italy for her daughter’s wedding in an abandoned palace. She meets the groom’s dad under unfortunate circumstances on the way to Italy and they immediately loathe each other. The bride’s dad arrives with his chippie and various other friends and relatives descend on the scene, with comic possibilities at every turn. A little silly at times, but mostly a comic gem.  4.5 cats”

Bruce says:  “LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED begins with Ida (Trine Dyrholm) getting an exit interview after her chemotherapy for breast cancer.  She is bald, has lost her breasts and now has to face her daughter getting married at her fiancé’s family home near Sorrento on the north end of Italy’s Amalfi Coast.  She returns home to find her husband Leif (Kim Bodnia), nude on the couch, screwing another woman (Christiane Schaumburg-Müller).  ‘I thought you were at chemo,’ her husband says aggressively challenging her right to be in her own home.  He introduces Ida to ‘Thilde from accounting,’ as though that might explain it all. When Ida yells at him he retorts, ‘There is no need to get nasty.  You’re overreacting.’ Next thing Ida is in a fender bender with none other than Philip (Pierce Brosnan), Ida’s daughter’s future father-in-law.  Philip is not amused.

“Before long all the players converge in Italy at a villa Philip has neglected since his wife died.  Patrick (Sebastian Jensen) and Astrid ­(Molly Blixt Egelind) arrive first to find the villa in shambles.  They begin working frantically with the help of friends who are caterers in hope of having things remotely presentable for their wedding guests.  Leif brings Thilde unannounced. Philip’s sister-in-law Benedikte (Paprika Steen) arrives ready to make a big move she has been planning since her sister died.  Not so fast there, Benedikte; in this film nothing is going according to plan.

“Anders Thomas Jensen has penned a script that is simultaneously comic and sensitive; his nicely developed characters are real as are the issues they must confront.  At the core are Philip and Ida who are genuinely sincere and caring.  Neither suffers fools and both are put to the test.  I never thought I would rave over a Pierce Brosnon performance but he is pitch perfect in a role that is more complex than it initially appears.  Likewise Trine Dyrholm is radiant and painfully sympathetic – it is hard to imagine the film could be made without her.  5 cats

(LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.)”

Chris says:  “If the ‘That’s Amore!’ opening credits (or the mere presence of Pierce Brosnan in MAMMA MIA! mode) seem a little… light for a Susanne Bier (OPEN HEARTS, BROTHERS) picture, rest assured it begins with the lead, Ida (Trine Dyrholm) fresh home from chemo treatment for cancer, walking in on her husband cheating on her in their living room. From the moment she and Brosnan’s Philip meet (more awkwardly than cute), you know the two will get together, quite possibly during the impending wedding of her daughter and his son. For all its predictability, the film still has its share of curveballs, many of them delivered with an agile touch that bespeaks life’s uncertainty and messiness even when picturesque, sun-drenched Italy serves as a backdrop. Dyrholm is a winning protagonist and certainly not your standard rom-com lead; as usual, Paprika Steen makes the most of her smallish role as Philip’s bubbly, bossy sister-in-law. 4 cats”