Fear Me Not

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08/09/2014 Den du Frygter (Fear Me Not) (Kristian Levring, 2008) It would be possible to write an entirely accurate review of Fear Me Not in exactly eleven words. "Ulrich Thomsen. Paprika Steen. What more do you need to know?" Amazon, however, required reviewers to write at least twenty, so I might as well go whole hog and tell you more, for those of you (there may be a few out there) for whom Thomsen (Adam's Apples) and Steen (Applause) are not automatic selling points. The two of them play a married couple, Mikael and Sigrid. Mikael has taken a leave of absence from work for an undisclosed reason; we can reasonably assume it has to do with his anxiety and depression, which he attempts to hide from Sigrid and their daughter Selma (Magi I Luften's Emma Sehested Hoeg) as much as possible. (He doesn't do a very good job of it, but the two of them are willfully blind to his condition, Sigrid more so.) One of the few routines he is still clinging to is rowing a few mornings a week with his friend and brother-in-law Frederik (Terribly Happy's Lars Brygman), a doctor whose hospital is about to start a trial of a new anti-anxiety medication. Mikael asks if he can get in on it; Frederik reluctantly agrees. At first, everything seems to be going swimmingly; Mikael becomes cheerful, connects with his family, starts talking about going back to work. But then, the changes start taking a darker turn. A few months before I watched Fear Me Not, I watched Side Effects, the latest (as of this writing) film from Steven Soderbergh, which covers, at least in its first third, a very similar scenario. I was not terribly fond of Side Effects, though I did like that first bit some. Fear Me Not has shown me why I was dissatisfied with a good deal of it. Soderbergh used this idea, of a drug trial gone hideously wrong, as the springboard to something else, and he put very little thought into that part of the film as a result; Rooney Mara's character went bonkers, and that set the scene for his real movie. Here, on the other hand, it is the real movie; this is what the press for Side Effects wanted you to believe it was, and Levring (The Intended) manages, with very little effort, to create a sense of palpable menace. Excellently-drawn characters working their way through a cracking script with a very mean heart. I say again: what more do you need to know? *** 1/2 See more 03/18/2014 I like my movies slow but this pushes even my limits. Not a horrible premise but as we wait and watch this guy devolve, well nothing moves very quickly. Danish films are usually pretty top-notch so I like to watch them. I guess they need Mads Mikkelson to truly be effective. This is the story of a workaholic who takes some time off. Out of boredom and perhaps because he thinks he's depressed, he volunteers for an anti-depression trial. I figured out the twist pretty much instantly but I wasn't sure. Either way, the plot moves very slowly and nothing really happens. You could say it builds to something...and it does, but it's so damn slow that I feel they could erase 30 minutes of the movie and still be as effective. And speaking of that ending, it's a European flick so you're not guaranteed a happy ending. I always like that...not knowing for sure. It's kinda like life. The good guy doesn't always win. I won't spoil the ending here so you still don't know (not like anyone's going to watch it anyway...) See more 12/03/2013 could not get into this one -- too much about midlife crisis See more 10/02/2013 reaches for palpable psychosis but, in the end, achieves only meandering dread. See more 09/23/2013 In a nutshell, a story of a man living a seemingly happy family life, having an existential crisis. It's somewhat uncomfortable, yet fascinating in a way, watching the main character unravel. Somehow, Scandinavian movies manage to capture bleak atmosphere of urban dread and desperation exceptionally well. See more 06/23/2013 Creepy psychological thriller with a great performance by Thomsen. See more Read all reviews

Fear Me Not

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