Guest Comment – Trine Dyrholm gives it her all as a bipolar mother in a dysfunctional family drama | Video

DAnish actress Trine Dyrholm gives a magnetic performance with all guns blazing in this very painful, uncomfortable and sometimes unpleasant film directed by writer-director Mads Mengel; It’s about a dysfunctional family and it’s shot without wheels with the closest thing to come, the ghost film of Thomas Vinterberg’s Dogme 95 classic Festen.

Karl (Simon Bennebjerg) and Emilie (Mette Klakstein) are a young Danish couple with a new baby, and they have just arrived at a seaside hotel where they are hosting a religious ceremony for people to “name” a large group of relatives, one of whom has brought a guitar to sing to the baby – Richard Curtis. Karl’s sister (Josephine Park) is there, as well as Emilie’s parents (Petrine Agger and Peter Gantzler). The one person who isn’t is Karl, Vibeke’s dangerous and moody mother (played by Dyrholm) who has bipolar disorder and has been placed in a previous episode.

Karl is afraid of his mother, and angry with her and has stopped talking to her – apparently he is ready to blame her for his behavior because he does not take his medication and has caused countless disturbances. But he was so frightened, he realized that his sister had gone ahead and called him, and he failed to tell Karl; he is the one who has to take care of Vibeke and maybe he is angry with Karl for not participating in the task of carrying the luggage. They also know that they have to deal with the problem that comes with being so scorned.

So Vibeke arrives, friendly and celebratory, but also queenly and dignified, apparently suspecting that the invitation, which comes from her daughter and not Karl, does not give her VIP status. He is a “stranger”, an unwelcome guest. The blue paper holder is lit to show fireworks. Dyrholm’s Vibeke is alive and interesting and terrifyingly inappropriate, she has a limit: she playfully beats her daughter to scold her in a way that seems to shield her from actual violence.

Vibeke saves just enough time for Karl – a very good performer, just short of Simon Bennebjerg – to give up a bit and allow Vibeke to take the lead. But what is happening involves “baptizing” the baby in the sea, and when the passionate Vibeke takes charge of this, the film must be watched with your fingers crossed.

There is something very painful here: a family scene of anger and resentment, very different from the child’s innocence. And it should not be said that Vibeke experienced what these young parents are experiencing now when her children were babies. His depression, his happiness, his unfairness – these are not just signs, they are real parts of who he is. And yet Vibeke is making life impossible for others and himself. It’s pretty cool and smart what Dyrholm does.