I rarely think this about a foreign film, but this would be a great movie for Hollywood to remake, notwithstanding that it was made by artsy-fartsy Danish auteur Lars von Trier. The director himself appears on screen to let us know this will not be “difficult,” but merely a comedy. Presumably this sort of notice that not all will be serious is necessary for those familiar with films such as Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, and Antichrist. But the premise alone is delicious enough to provoke a smile here. An actor with delusions of greatness (Jens Albinus) is hired to briefly portray an IT company’s absent company president, only to find his assignment extended so that he must become what he pretends to be. It turns out that the boss is actually the fictitious creation of the company’s founder, who prefers to shield himself from blame for his unpopular decisions.
Von Trier is no longer using the rigid Dogme rules for shooting his films, but instead uses Automavision, whereby a computer selects how a scene will be shot. The result seems more natural than with the handheld (i.e. slightly shaky) cameras of Dogme, but I thought that a story that would lend itself to zippy screwball comedy comes off more like an episode of The Office. That can still be pretty funny when the actor, obsessed by the pedantic theories of a pretentious playwright, is forced to improvise. And the way the company’s potential buyers, a pair of Icelanders, display their contempt for their former colonial overlords, is all the more amusing for being, to an American, an obscure avenue for comedy. Minus this and one or two other things (e.g., the unnecessary voiceovers), I see Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges as the leads in the American remake.
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viewed 1/25/10 on DVD and reviewed 1/26/10
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