A Family

Actually, everything is going great for Ditte (Lene Maria Christensen). Her relationship with her boyfriend Peter (Pilou Asbæk) has reached a new level, topped off by a job offer from New York. For the director of a Copenhagen gallery, this is a big dream come true. But the eldest daughter of the Danish bakery family Rheinwald, the official purveyor to the court of the Danish royal family, has not reckoned with fate throwing a nasty spanner in her works. Ditte's father Rikard (Jesper Christensen) has fallen seriously ill and believes that only Ditte can keep the traditional bakery going. Now the young woman must decide: either she follows her dream and thus secures her future with Peter, or she gives in to her father's will and thus accepts to lose her professional as well as private happiness for good.

A family offers real emotions without kitsch, great acting without overdone performances, and an authentic story without superfluous dramaturgy. Thus, lovers of moving program cinema fare will get their money's worth here. Admittedly, especially in the last third there is a lot of suffering. And that might also put a lot of pressure on the mood of some viewers. But the way in which the difficult balancing act between tradition and modernity is mediated here and themes like love, family, loss and death are dealt with, is infused with so much humanity that it's hard to resist it. This is largely due to the superb performances of Lene Maria Christensen and Jesper Christensen. Jesper Christensen in particular shows tremendous acting power in the final third that will stay with you for a long time.

Only the fact that the staging is a little too ponderous and should have quietly not taken itself quite so seriously really strikes a negative note. Realism is all well and good, but most viewers would have been guaranteed to sympathize with the Rheinwald family even if the action had been lightened up a bit here and there. There are a few amusing moments, to be sure, one of which is undoubtedly the original opening credits. But overall, the gloom and dreariness prevails, which earns points in the ambition department, but brings deductions in entertainment value.

Lovers of sophisticated arthouse entertainment or moving family stories outside the mainstream will still get their money's worth from A Family. For those who don't necessarily expect a feel-good film and like to come out of the cinema with a pensive outlook, this Danish drama can definitely be recommended.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp