5/10
Dark humour lost in place
13 October 2013
In a dysfunctional family headed by a neurotic, depressive and abusive milkman Far (Jesper Asholt), eleven year old Allan (Jannik Lorenzen) stills beholds his father as a role model, unable to grasp the destructive influence he has on other household members. Far terrorises the family with his insecurity, forcibly seeking affirmation of his worth. His mother Sanne (Julie Kolbech) hides away inside from Far's incessant sobbing preferring to take sleeping pills than to comfort her hysterical husband, while older brother Asger (Thomas Knuth-Winterfeldt) has escaped the house and enjoying his student life. Allan tries his best to keep his father happy, nagging his sister Mor (Hanne Hedelund) to do that thing, that she does to keep father away for him suicidal tendencies. Finally he discovers that Far is inwardly joyous whenever he has the opportunity to deliver riveting eulogies, thus tempting Allan to enter a murderous spree to supply his father with eulogies. Allan, still not old enough to see through the manipulative behaviour does the most dastardly deeds out of an innocent belief in his father's greatness.

Set in 1970s Danish countryside the story about an abusive patriarch takes a wicked turn into a coming-of-age story dabbling with dry humour, but the subject matter including incest and physical abuse grinds uncomfortably with the the tone of the film. Seemingly light the dark entrails make it a troublesome watch, as it jars with a dramatic contradiction. Narratively loose it also fails to truly develop the story, leaving it somewhat hanging in oblivion making it feel somewhat dragging and exerting your patience at times. Performances are well-rounded, set in the quirkiness of characters, but as the movie goes I found myself disinterested in their development as the story obviously lacks focus, throwing dramatic tantrums, instead of building on the material.
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