Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

KobusAdAstra The film opens with a young lad, Christian (William Johnk Juels Nielsen) reading a poem at the funeral service of his mother. We quickly realize that he carries around a lot of anger; he clearly has some unresolved emotional issues regarding the death of his mother, and it seems as if he blames his father Claus (Ulrich Thomsen) for not caring. The film then moves to beautifully photographed scenes in Africa, where Anton (Mikael Persbrandt), a medical doctor, is doing humanitarian work in a poor community in a windswept and bleak part in the north of that continent. Several of the women patients have been mutilated by a gang of armed bandits, led by the 'Big Man'. The effect of his gruesome atrocities, shown in a few shocking scenes, results in resentment brewing among the medical staff. Then one day wounded 'Big Man' and his entourage arrive and demand that he be treated by the doctor. Would Anton and his staff assist this brutal ruffian, or would they give in to revenge?Elias (Markus Rygaard), the son of Anton, is the target of bullies at school in Denmark. Christian, who just has moved to Elias's school, witnesses it and decides to do something about it. A violent altercation follows.Lonely, soft-spoken Elias and Christian become close friends. Elias is enthralled by his more domineering friend. One day an argument arises between Anton, just back from Africa, and an abusive man, Lars, at a playground. Although shoved around, pacifist Anton kept his cool without retaliating. The scene was witnessed by both boys. Christian found it hard to accept that Anton just stood there passively. Why didn't he hit back? Christian decides to retaliate and pay Lars back, and drags Elias with him in an act of revenge that would go terribly wrong. Evaluating 'In a Better World', I have only one bit of criticism; towards the end the film tends to lapse into, for my taste at least, too much sentimentality. But this criticism becomes rather insignificant when compared to the rest of this powerful film. 'In a Better World' has many strong points: The stories of both families, and events on both continents, are cleverly interwoven; credit to the director and editor. The main theme, that of the different manifestations of violence and subsequent revenge, is intelligently and in a non-sensational way brought to the attention of the viewer. The acting by all, but particularly young Nielsen and Rygaard is truly superb. Furthermore, the cinematography, be it of dusty Africa or verdant Denmark is top-notch. This film deservedly was awarded the 'Best Foreign Language' Academy Award. I score it an excellent 8.5 /10.

SnoopyStyle Anton is a Swedish doctor who works in a refugee camp in Sudan and returns home to his family in Denmark. Sometimes he faces difficult situations with rape victims and a ruthless warlord but he maintains his pacifism. He is separated from his wife Marianne. His son Elias is being bullied and called Rat Face. Elias is defended by violent new boy Christian. Anton tries to teach the boys by confronting the bully's father who ends up slapping him several times. The boys decide to build a pipe bomb for the bully's car.It's emotionally deep going off in unexpected directions. The only thing that draws it back is that it wraps up too neatly. It could end with more ambiguity. Christian could have gone to juvenile detention. Elias could have been maimed which would fit what Anton encounters in the camp. When Christian beats up the bully, I thought this movie could go off to unexplored territories. In the end, it feels like a couple of punches were held back.

David Roberts I got the opportunity to watch this film last night as part of my annual film club and had read the previous reviews so anticipated seeing it.Like some of the reviewers on here, I agree that it is filmed beautifully and the location and set are a great backdrop to the deep and thoughtful narrative encapsulating the audience.Both boys in the film absolutely steal the show and provide a very convincing performance where you sincerely believe they are both within the 'pact' together and that their friendship is solely based on vengeance - until the very end, when Christian admits that the very core of his demand for payback was remorse for his mother's battle with cancer (and repressing feelings toward his Dad).I agree with a few people on here in which the Africa plot was a little bit hard to distinguish against the main plot line as I believe they are trying to run both stories parallel but we don't spend enough time developing characterisation for the African's lives and their wives who had been targeted. Rather, our minds are more set on deciphering the boys relationship and where it's going to go next - the film would have been just as good (if not a little better) without it.Also, I couldn't help but think that towards the end of the film, it could have been wrapped up a bit quicker than what it did - whilst the landscape shots / and the birds in the sky do provide us with a slight metaphor about the beauty of life, I felt that they did get a little tedious to the end. Don't get me wrong, when used correctly this sort of thing can have a very strong impact, but in this instance I believe we just needed a conclusion to settle the story.All in all, a great film, challenging everyday emotions and morals, with a great cast who execute the film perfectly. Take out a few scenes and this would have been one for the vaults.

punishmentpark The big problem with'Haevnen' is that there are too many 'incidents' lined up in a row in an all too easy manor. Strictly speaking, all these things could have happened, but crammed together into a two hour film it's just too much - a miniseries would have been the least - if only to get to know the characters a bit better. But this being a film, the director could have more wisely chosen to build on / around just a few tragic incidents (and coincidences)...The acting, the settings, the atmosphere, they're all pretty good, although I didn't care for some of that 'shaky' camera work. And a few of the incidents (for instance, the doctor taking the children to the garage owner and that same doctor leaving Big Man behind with the angry crowd) stood out in a positive way, even within that fatted script.Good? Bad? ...Somewhere in the middle; 5 out of 10.