{"id":9518,"date":"2010-07-12T17:24:59","date_gmt":"2010-07-13T01:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9518"},"modified":"2010-07-12T17:24:59","modified_gmt":"2010-07-13T01:24:59","slug":"a-family-en-familie-pernille-fischer-christensen-2010-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9518","title":{"rendered":"A Family (En Familie) (Pernille Fischer Christensen, 2010): Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed at Regal Cinemas, Los Angeles Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"en<\/a><\/p>\n

Film ratings tell you what you can watch based on your age.\u00a0 We all, with any degree of luck, move up through the categories until everything is deemed suitable.\u00a0 A Family (En Familie)<\/em><\/a>, directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen, should be given a different sort of rating: C – recommended for those who have survived losing someone close through cancer.\u00a0 Refusing to shy away from the best and the worst that the disease can bring out in sufferers and loved ones alike, it provided me with an unexpectedly cathartic experience.\u00a0 Quite simply, it is the most rewardingly and devastatingly realistic depiction of terminal cancer that I\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n

It is the specificity of the observations that makes this film so powerful.\u00a0 Its characters focus on the mundane minutia of everyday life, struggling to exercise control over something, anything, as their world is torn apart.\u00a0 Impotent rage is flung against loved ones.\u00a0 Stupid, selfish things are said; the most important words are forgotten.\u00a0 It captures the uncomfortable tedium of waiting for the inevitable when all hope has passed, and the tempest of grief and guilty relief that follows.\u00a0 By capturing these elements the film, for me, succeeds utterly.\u00a0 Right down to the home-nurse (unsung angels with a job I would not wish on my worst enemy) leading a loved one through the ritual of dressing the deceased, a final act of care and dignity, it all rings perfectly true.\u00a0 The film cries out to its audience that you are not alone; you were no better or worse than these people, than anyone else.\u00a0 Without preaching or condemning, this gives it value and merit.\u00a0 That it goes beyond this makes it great.<\/p>\n

The performance of Jesper Christiansen, as they dying father to an extended family and the head of a renowned bakery, is quite astonishing.\u00a0 He is completely convincing in his passion and his rage, and his ability to physically embody the ravages of the disease is astounding.\u00a0 This is a performance on par with Tom Hank\u2019s AIDS riddled lawyer in Philadelphia (a role for which he won an Oscar) and makes the film worth seeing in and of itself.<\/p>\n

Christiansen is supported by the rest of the cast who all perform well.\u00a0 None ever seem to rise to his level, but such are the extremes demanded by his role that it would be hard to shine next to him.\u00a0 Lene Maria Christensen does a superb job as the apple of the dying man\u2019s eye, fighting to make him see what is truly important.\u00a0 The film is also well shot, lingering on moments of beauty and ugliness with equal candor.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the film is not without flaws.\u00a0 A narrative line focusing on an abortion feels somewhat divorced from proceedings, pushing the film unnecessarily towards melodrama and perhaps stretching the running time a little too far.\u00a0 Musical choices also occasionally feel out of place, particularly when their English lyrics jar against the Danish dialogue.\u00a0 But for me these cannot diminish the power of this film.\u00a0 For those of you rated \u2018C\u2019, it might well be the best film that the L.A. Film Festival has to offer this year.<\/p>\n

Addendum \u2013 it seems the critics agree with me.\u00a0 The jury has declared A Family \u2018Best Narrative Film\u2019 at the LA Film Festival for 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden. \u00a0Viewed at Regal Cinemas, Los Angeles Film Festival. Film ratings tell you what you can watch based on your age.\u00a0 We all, with any degree of luck, move up through the categories until everything is deemed suitable.\u00a0 A Family (En Familie), directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen, should be given a different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-los-angeles-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}