Product: After The Wedding (Despues De La Boda) [NTSC/REGION 1 & 4 DVD. Import-Latin America] (2006)
Rating: 3.0
Hollow at the core
One can see why this movie garnered such praises. Beautifully filmed, knockout kids, excellent performances, and a glorious soundtrack brilliantly featuring Sigur Ros, the film looks, sounds, and feels spectacular. But it is thematically where it lost me, and lost me bad.I suppose we are to see contrasts between rich and poor, past and present. Money cannot buy everything. Yeah, OK, think we've heard that one before. But what this film is about is atonement. And it seems to say that money can indeed buy that. Jorgen wants to fund an orphanage to atone for his unnamed sins (unless the mere act of making money is a sin in itself.) 12 million dollars, even if they are depressed, buys a lot of hope for a lot of kids. Jorgen, apparently a truly and consistently good man in the world's eyes, is satisfied to do so. And garners praises. Jacob, sullied by a vile past, seeks atonement by serving the world's poor and desperate. Different path, same solution: works.But I don't think it is so easy. This is atonement for the non-religious, or karma-crowd. The good makes up for and outweighs the bad. Poof, all nasty stuff gone! Do a lot of bad, you had better do even more good to balance the scale. In a Denmark where the Protestant religion once flourished, but here plays no role other than officiating at weddings and funerals, this is the only moral scale to be found. But the old one, the one that says deeds cannot ameliorate what was done, seems far more true to me. Having characters scramble to fix their sins with actions, earning their way into (whatever--public acclaim, easy conscience, family respect, heaven...makes no difference) is the post-modern solution. And one that would make all the very rich, very-ugly-past Hollywood types jump for joy. "See! I can undo all the scuzz I did and illegitimate children I fathered!" I'll choose forgiveness instead.