Open Hearts (Elsker dig for evigt)

"Open Hearts" tells a heartbreaking story, for both the protagonists and spectators, at least for those who can identify themselves with one or more of its characters.

The story begins by showing how happy Cæcilie (Sonja Richter) and Joachim (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) are: this is not a perfect idyll, but a couple who gives and shows each other sincerity and tenderness; a handsome young couple who without being seducers has been seduced. By all accounts, this is a couple who will be facing a very long story.

As usual, one morning they go out together, heading to their respective work places. Joachim gets out and before leaving he gets closer to the car window to give Cæcilie one more kiss and, as two young people who have just met love, they struggle and then finally manage to get separated. When he turns to cross the street the unexpected happens: a car hits him with such mechanical violence.

The accident is extremely serious, but not fatal. The woman driving the car, Marie (Paprika Steen) is really upset and asks her husband, Niels (Mads Mikkelsen), who is a doctor at the hospital where Joachim has been transferred, to look after this poor young couple and to help them overcome  this difficult time.

Marie feels responsible for what has happened, because just before running Joachim over, she was holding a classical argument with her teenage daughter, a dispute that will reveal a tense family atmosphere that the development of the film will confirm.

Joachim is quadriplegic due to the accident. And Niels look after Cæcilie, and Marie realizes too late that she has put a rope around her neck.

I do not know if it's because they used a bit of the dogmatic ways from “Dogma 95” that the result is so effective and moving. However, I do know that two major roles given two Danish film institutions, such as Paprika Steen and Mads Mikkelsen, could only benefit the final result.

The film traduces a freshness and spontaneity in an unquestionable appearance, all meticulously planned, the suffering seems accidental, but Susanne Bier knows how to shock the audience at any time and from anywhere. The conventions of the film, in short, seem to imply that there are victims and executioners; but its script confronts us with the harsh ethics of reality, in which the famous gray (as opposed to black and white) world is not neutral, nor are pain and joy.

“Open Hearts” is a movie that I really like and recommend: a must see, definitely.

Director: Susanne Bier

Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen

Stars: Sonja Richter, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Mads Mikkelsen