VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

grantss Bess McNeill is a young woman living in a conservative coastal village in Scotland. Against the wishes of her church she marries Jan, a Scandinavian worker on an oil rig. She is insanely in love with Jan and can't bear it when he leaves to do his shift on the oil rig. Then Jan is injured at work and everything changes.A Lars von Trier movie that covers some interesting themes – obsessive relationships, euthanasia, manipulation, dogma and the lengths people go to for love. Some of these are only touched on though, with no real development or conclusion. Moreover, the story is told in a very drawn-out fashion. The movie could easily have been less than two hours long but von Trier stretches it out to over 2 ½ hours through extending scenes well beyond their usefulness and including scenes that add nothing to the movie.Not entirely engaging either, so the 2 ½ hours moves quite slowly. Bess is not a very likable character – irascible, controlling, intense and a tad insane. Ending is quite emotional though and provides good closure to the story. Another plus is the great soundtrack.Overall, reasonably interesting but is a test of patience.

allyatherton Starring Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgard and Katrin Cartlidge.Written by Lars Von Trier, Peter Asmussen and David Pirie.Directed by Lars Von Trier.A totally absorbing movie.I liked everything about it from the unbelievably good acting performance by Emily Watson to the location filming, cinematography and well crafted plot. There's something old school about this one, an old fashioned movie without all the bells and whistles that spoil some films. The haunting remote location filming adds to the emotional, dark and at times, humorous story.It's a long one and maybe a bit too long and there are a couple of plot holes that don't really ruin this great movie. For example the hospital in the story seems to have only one Doctor who is responsible for life saving surgery and also mental health reviews and probably everything else and the sister of the main female lead seems at times to be the only nurse in the hospital. But overall this is a big fat ten out of ten for me. A wonderfully emotional roller coaster of a movie that covers everything from love to heartbreak to religious bigotry.On a sad note I was trying to work out where I'd seen the young woman who plays the sister in the movie and now I can only guess I remember her from Brookside, which I watched on and off during the eighties. I was shocked and saddened to learn that this talented and beautiful actress died a few years after filming this. Such a shame. I'm sure she would have gone on to achieve a lot more in acting and directing.10/10

SnoopyStyle Bess McNeil (Emily Watson) is a simple naive girl in a religious community in northern Scotland. It's so conservative that they don't even have church bells and women aren't allowed to talk in the services. She is an emotional simpleton marrying Danish oil-rig worker Jan Nyman (Stellan Skarsgård). He breaks his neck on a rig accident. He convinces Bess to take another lover and he directs her to ever more deviant sexual adventures. She believes that she's doing Godly work and it would help him recover.It's a great performance from newcomer Emily Watson. She nails the wide eyed innocence of her simpleton character and her almost schizophrenic exchanges with god. The only problem I have with the movie is director Lars von Trier's indie camera style. I can live with the slow quiet pacing. I don't mind anything but the wild quick camera movements. The shaky camera worn me out and it made me dizzy. I wonder if the movie would be better with edits and smoother slower camera work.

choochooman7 "Breaking the Waves" is an emotionally potent (though rather heavy) romantic drama for its first half and then a cruel exercise in sadistic torture for its second. What starts as a relatively normal drama about a newly married couple struck by tragedy when the husband is paralyzed in an oil rig accident transforms into something much more intense, upsetting and emotionally manipulative. Von Trier is obviously known as a provocateur, and this film is no different. I guess what surprises me is that most people seem generally moved by this film. While I'd agree with that in relation to its first half, which feels very genuine and humanist, it's second half is something else entirely.For a long time it's about the undying power of love in the face of physical hardships and it is very touching. Then one scene changes the films entire course and sends an already very heavy emotionally draining drama straight into the pits of hell. Character actions stop making sense, our protagonist goes down an easily avoidable path of self- destruction in a misguided attempt to save her husband, and the audience is dragged through the mud in increasingly uncomfortable, and sometimes absurd ways. By the time the wife decides to go back a second time to this mysterious rape boat owned by Udo Kier as a means of curing her husband (it's as odd as it sounds), you know you're not really watching the same film.I've enjoyed many of Von Trier's movies, and while this review might sound on the contrary, I enjoyed this one a lot too. I watched it on blu ray and it looked fantastic. Say what you will of Von Trier's visual aesthetic (which, with its grainy hand-held photography, is admittedly exhausting), the new high definition transfer really brings out the depth and raw beauty in his images. It is not a sloppy looking film as some have argued.What is most unsettling about Breaking the Waves is how it just kind of dramatically explodes halfway through, and while I don't really find it very moving (it's too sick and mean-spirited to feel very genuine, especially it's appalling "happy" ending), it is fascinating and absorbing all the way through. I don't think it quite works, but I appreciate its willingness to take the audience on an excruciating journey and let them ponder on such interesting topics as religious faith and the power (or absence) of God. Emily Watson is a revelation and Bess is a fantastic character. Even when Von Trier manipulates the narrative in the cruelest and most unnecessary ways just to further torture this poor woman, she still anchors the entire film. I do feel like the second half betrays her character to some degree, but it's still a perfectly modulated performance from beginning to end. She has two standout scenes in the second half that I find very troubling, but also undeniably powerful.My final point is that Lars Von Trier is insane and while this is one of his more normal looking movies, it is anything but. Proceed with caution.