The Danes have a knack of making little movies that feel like the most important thing in the world while you're watching them. Movies like Festen, King's Game, Inheritance and Brothers jettison any plot flab, which allows us to be intoxicated by the simple stories and keep us riveted until the end. After The Wedding follows suit. Jacob Petersen (Mikkelsen) has finally got his life together working with disadvantaged children on the streets of India, but when the orphanage he runs is threatened with closure, Jacob is forced to travel home to Denmark to seek funding. A meeting with the charismatic businessman Jorgen (Lassgard) is arranged, but Jorgen hates talking business and invites Jacob to his daughter Anna's (Christensen) wedding the next day. There, Jacob meets Helene, an ex-girlfriend now married to Jorgen, and is aghast to find that Anna is actually his daughter. Present and past collide and Jacob is hurtled into the most intense dilemma of his life. It's a simply plotted story, but what makes After The Wedding stand out is the performances: everyone, and I mean everyone, is outstanding. Bier, who also scripted, teases out the film slowly as we learn something new about each character exactly when she wants us to. Mikkelsen is granted most of the screen time and he holds the film together when centre stage, but it's Lassgard who steals the show. We are forced to change our minds on Jorgen almost every time we see him and this inability to figure him out is very intriguing. After The Wedding finishes with one of the best happysad endings in recent memory.
