By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Mads Matthiesen
Starring: Allan Mogensen | David Winters | Elsebeth Steentoft | Kim Kold | Lamaiporn Hougaard
Original language title: 10 timer til Paradis
Country: denmark
Year: 2012
Running time: 92
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1729226/
Bruce says: “Dennis (Kim Kold) is a 38 year old bodybuilder. He still lives with his mother Ingrid (Elsebeth Steentoft) who treats him as though he were just entering his teen years. Theirs is the quintessential co-dependent relationship. Normal boundaries do not exist. They brush their teeth together in the morning. While Dennis showers his mother casually uses the toilet a few feet away. Dennis goes out on dates but does not relate well to the banter required to kick-off even the most casual relationship. He also is not interested in frivolous, indiscriminate sex. At first it appears that Dennis could be gay and deeply closeted (we’re talking way back, deep in a cavernous closet). In fact, the first time Dennis displays any real spontaneous emotion is when he touches a fellow bodybuilder.
“When his uncle (Allan Mogensen) returns from Thailand with a new bride Dennis secretly plans a vacation to do the same. He tells his mother he has entered a bodybuilding competition in Dusseldorf. His uncle gives him a contact named Scott (David Winters) in Thailand. Scott owns a bar which Dennis soon discovers is a brothel. The first night he meets a girl that is too forward. Dennis flees. He does go back to the bar for a second time and scores. The hotel immediately charges him for girl-in-room as he passes through the lobby on his way to his room. Once in the room Dennis chickens out, pays the girl and asks her to leave. With time on his hands, Dennis finds a bodybuilding gym where he immediately connects with the bodybuilders. The gym is now owned by Toi (Lamaiporn Hougaard), the widow of the original owner. When the bodybuilders invite Dennis to dinner he sits across from Toi. Love has come where Dennis least expected it. The big obstacle, of course, is Ingrid. When Dennis returns home and confesses that he was never in Dusseldorf all hell breaks loose.
“TEDDY BEAR is a lovely film that left me frustrated and unsatisfied. These feelings are largely due to the use of untrained actors in complicated psychological roles and a script that should have compensated for the lack of depth resulting from the actors’ shortcomings. This is not a film with complicated plot lines or tons of action, either of which may often mask the lack of nuance on the part of the actors. Kim Kold is physically ideal for the role of Dennis. An aspect of Kold’s role is stoicism. That stoicism is so prevailing that, at times, it is impossible to know what is going on in his head. The viewer cannot distinguish Dennis’ frustration from fear, anger, shyness, depression, or disinterest. The exception among the actors in TEDDY BEAR is Elsebeth Steentoft (IN A BETTER WORLD, ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS) whose intensity throws the film slightly off balance. 3 cats
“(TEDDY BEAR screened at the 2012 Provincetown International Film Festival.)”
Thom says: “This Film Movement charmer was expended from the good short DENNIS about a Danish bodybuilder who has trouble with his obsessive mother. In this longer film the talented director expands on his theme. Dennis wants to find a partner but the women he meets in Denmark are all wrong for him, plus he has to see them on the sly so as not to upset Ingrid, his wicked, controlling mother. He attends a party with Ingrid welcoming the marriage of Dennis’ uncle to a woman from Thailand. After talking with his uncle he decides to vacation in Thailand to try to meet a future wife. Once arriving in Pattaya he goes through a huge culture shock. The matchmaker he meets connects him with girls that are little better than prostitutes and Dennis is turned-off by their aggressiveness. Dennis is huge & massive and his ultra-gentle manner is in direct contrast to his appearance. In frustration he heads off to Thai gymnasium for a workout and is immediately taken by the proprietor, a 30-something Thai widow, who inherited the gym. Dennis starts to date the widow and through many awkward scenes they finally arrive at a relationship and eventually she moves to Denmark to marry Dennis. In the meantime Dennis has lied to his mother saying he had been off to Germany for a bodybuilder competition. When he finally admits the truth to Ingrid it’s giving nothing away to say the shit hits the fan. Sweet and uncomplicated this film admirably shows how a person can grow by simple perseverance. 4.5 cats”