Too many fans seem to be blown away

I wanted to but couldn't!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I have seen so many Dogme films but I can wholeheartedly say that Open Hearts "Elsker dig for evigt" (2002) is my favorite and the closest to my heart.Cecilie (Sonja Ritcher) is a cook in her early twenties who is deeply in love with and also recently engaged to Joachim (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). Their relationship is put to test when Joachim becomes paralyzed for life after a car accident. The woman who was driving the car (Paprika Steen) feels obliged to help the couple and pushes her husband Niels (Mads Mikkelsen) to comfort Cecilie, unaware of the devastating outcome.. Niels falls in love with Cecilie.The thing about Dogme films is that they are capable of putting you in a very close position to the characters, almost in a crude way. Susanne Bier uses this honesty to gently place us inside the most closed space: the human psyche. Open Hearts does not just slam you with naked reality and intimate details - it does not want to shock you like most Dogme films, it takes you gently by the hand and allows you the same amount of confusion and indeterminateness the characters are feeling. And it does that equally; you can never blame any of the four protagonists even in their lowest moments because it is raw human emotions they are showing and simultaneously you are experiencing.The film could leave you melancholic or hopeful, it depends on how you see it, but what I am well sure of is that it will give you no closure, no answers, no relief of any kind - and this is so heartbreaking, just like life itself. It puts you in direct contact with the awful/beautiful fact that despite its intensity and realness sometimes, all the spectrum of human emotions is transient. My eyes teared up at the end of the film, not because I felt sorry for anyone or anything, but because I felt betrayed by the film's stark honesty. I wanted an ending to this emotional mess I have witnessed/experienced and instead I was left clueless and disillusioned in the middle of nowhere.Okay, enough with this subjective philosophical rambling. Let's talk about some technical aspects.Although Bier breaks away with some of the Dogme rules, I thought the use of Super-8 camera to show short fantasy sequences is a brilliant touch to take you a few steps away from reality and bring you even closer to the characters. Anders Thomas Jensen's script is gripping and flows effortlessly even when characters do not say a word, which leads us to the carefully chosen and amazing cast. I personally think that a great deal of the genius of the performance in this film comes from Bier herself and the kind of free yet intimate atmosphere she has provided for her actors. She does not aim at getting the best angles or making them look attractive, she only allows them the freedom to be themselves no matter how that would look like.

Danish screenwriter, producer and director Susanne Bier's seventh feature film which was written by Danish screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen, is based on an idea by Susanne Bier. It premiered at the 30th Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund in 2002, was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 27th Toronto International Film Festival in 2002, in the Official Selection section at the 50th San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2002, was shot on location in Denmark and is a Danish production which was produced by Danish producer Vibeke Windeløv. It tells the story about a geography student named Joachim whom is going on a mountain climbing trip to Patagonia, South America and who on the day after having proposed to his 25-year-old girlfriend named Cæcilie who is a chef, is hit by a car and hospitalized. Whilst Cæcilie is waiting to see Joachim at the hospital, she is introduced to a doctor named Niels who lives in Copenhagen, Denmark with his wife named Marie and their 6-year-old son named Emil, 8-year-old son named Gustav and 14-year-old daughter named Stine who is in high school and who is having a fall out with her best friend regarding her boyfriend. Niels tells Cæcilie who he is and after talking with Marie who feels responsible for what has happened to Joachim, he begins spending time with Cæcilie.Distinctly and subtly directed by Nordic filmmaker Susanne Bier, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws a profoundly heartrending portrayal of a Danish woman who goes out of her way to get her boyfriend to love her like he did before his accident, a Danish father and husband who instigated by his and his wife's consciousness makes himself available for her and a concerned daughter's relationship with her father. While notable for its distinct and naturalistic milieu depictions and fine cinematography by Danish cinematographer Morten Søborg, this dialog-driven and narrative-driven story about fate's intervention in the lives of ordinary people where a coincidental accident brings people together, separates them and affects each and every one of them and where human compassion leads to love and sorrow, depicts four humane and interrelated studies of character and contains a great and timely score by composer Jesper Winge Leisner. This sociological, at times humorous and utterly gripping drama from the early 2000s which is set in the capital city of Denmark in the early 21st century and where a daughter wonders why her father can buy a woman he has just met lots of furniture when he can't even buy her a dress, and a charming and lively man becomes an unrecognizable person after being paralysed from his neck and down, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, natural and endearing characters, intimate realism, distinguishable depiction of interpersonal relations and the graciously heartfelt acting performances by Danish actors Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Danish actresses Sonja Richter, Paprika Steen and Stine Bjerregaard in her debut feature film role. An acutely and gracefully romantic character piece which gained, among other awards, the Bodil Award for Best Danish Film at the 56th Bodil Awards in 2002.

I recently purchased OPEN HEARTS, having enjoyed immensely Susanne Bier's AFTER THE WEDDING. I realized it was a dogme film and was looking forward to seeing the great MADS MIKKELSEN in digital format. Watching the story unfold was both harrowing and exhilarating. The emotional roller coaster Bier takes you through in this film touches on so many corners of human emotion that I'm left really in admiration of how well she understands human nature. And I also must not forget writer Anders Thomas Jensen, who as a writer, can go to so many places ..not only in human dramas such as this and AFTER THE WEDDING, but vicious, wicked comedies like FLICKERING LIGHTS, and ADAM'S APPLES (both also with MADS MIKKELSEN) The writing was superb, the acting from all parties exceptional. I must say the two characters that really left an impression were Nikolaj Lie Kaas' Joachim, who is so vile during the middle portion of the film, but sympathetic at the same time, and he earned that moment of grace at the end....and also Paprika Steen's Marie, who has a tough role straddling her anger and her need for forgivness from Cecilia. In a scene where you expect Marie will curse Cecilia out, she speaks softly and tells Cecilia she understands. She is also walking this same line with her husband Niels. In a scene where she yells at Niels to get out of the house...She yells the same lines Joachim yells to Cecilia at the hospital, telling her to stay away.....neither character means what they say. It's very interesting that these two scenes would marry each other. I was really impressed with the emotional complexity of all the characters and the hints the director gives us as to a possible outcome....which if life goes accordingly...chance might also undo.

I am not very much into dogma movies - but this one is really worth looking. As always, the danish acting is superb (by the way: can anybody explain me, why actors from Denmark are so convincing every time?) I also liked the open ending, which doesn't pretend to find a solution to a nearly unsolvable problem. Furthermore, the beginning was gorgeous. Susanne Bier presents her characters in slightly normal situations - but yet that charming and vivid, you just have to love the young couple. And so you also will suffer from the incident and its consequences for them. Another interesting aspect is, that there is absolutely no antagonist in this movie - and, surprise, surprise: you won't miss one! All the characters have two sides, are protagonist and antagonist at the same time - just like in real life!