After The Wedding (Efter Brylluppet)

At its peak, the resolutely lo-fi Dogme movement earthed some of the most melodramatic films ever made. The raw aesthetic underlining Breaking The Waves made miracles seem plausible. The heightened tensions of Festen were defused by a low grade lens. Nothing, however, could disguise the implausibility of this Oscar nominated film from Dogme graduate Susanne Bier.
Like her previous offerings Brother and Open Hearts, After The Wedding explores an emotional gordian knot. As the film opens, protagonist Jacob (Casino Royale’s Mikkelsen) is running an Indian orphanage threatened with closure. When a businessman in Jacob’s native Denmark comes to the rescue with a considerable and vital cash donation, there are certain conditions attached; Jacob must return to Copenhagen to meet his mystery benefactor Jørgen (Lassgård). Once there, Jacob is cajoled into attending the wedding of Jørgen’s daughter. It quickly transpires that the girl was, in fact, fathered by Jacob. His presence at the ceremony, it seems, is not at all by chance.
As Bier works through the mystery, there are some terrific performances and charged moments. But I’m sure this precise plot was once used in an episode of The Golden Girls and as I recall, it seemed less preposterous than it does here. Stretched to touch on any number of Big Themes – fatherhood, death, capitalism, nationality, love, poverty, infidelity – After The Wedding tries a little too hard to be profound before capitulating with a ridiculously neat denouement. Closure is something to be glad of, but not when it suffocates the life out of the film. Soapy and diverting for all that.