QUEEN OF HEARTS: Trine Dyrholm stars in Denmark's entry into the BFLF sweeps

If you'll recall, the QUEEN OF HEARTS -- at least in the famous Lewis Carroll tale which the three leading characters in this eponymously-named film take turns reading to a set of pretty young twins -- is perhaps most remembered for constantly shouting "Off with his head!" This is worth noting, since that romantic-sounding title might put you in mind of various rom-coms you've seen over the years. That this film, directed and co-written by May el-Toukhy (shown below), is Scandinavian, however, might re-direct you into darker territory.

And though we are not talking an Ingmar Bergman-level of serious filmmaking here, the movie is perhaps the darkest example of the lives of the Scandinavian haute bourgeoisie to be seen in quite some time. Queen of Hearts is Denmark's entry into the newly titled Best International Feature Film category (formerly called the Best Foreign Language Film), and as such would be expected to deliver some prestige goods. It does -- and then some.

TrustMovies would be pleased to see the film arrive on the Academy's shortlist of nine movies considered for this award, perhaps even rising to become one of the five nominees. Yet it is such an incredibly dark film that I rather think an embrace by the entire Academy may prove difficult.

Queen of Hearts deals with an older woman's affair with her husband's son from a former marriage, and if your mind, as did mine when I heard this plot hook, moved into Phaedra territory or that of any number of melodramatic movies made around this theme, think again. That the older woman is played by one of the Denmark's finest actresses, Trine Dyrholm (shown above and below, and recently seen here in Becoming Astrid and Nico, 1988), only makes the movie even more of a must-see, and Ms Dyrholm plays each moment to its max without ever overdoing.

There is a single unnecessary scene of tears -- that perhaps indicates some sort of repentance but comes across as too easy -- meant to humanize our non-heroine; otherwise the movie is spot-on emotionally and psychologically. It is at its finest at the very moment when other films would take that melodramatic/soap-operatic turn. Instead this one offers up a gut punch unlike any we've experienced.

The other two leading roles -- Magnus Krepper (above, left, as the husband/father and Gustav Lindh (below) as the son -- are equally fine, the former caring but distant, the latter caring and all too present. Likewise the supporting roles all add to the specificity and believability of the scenario.

I can't go into more of the plot maneuvering without giving away genuine spoilers. Suffice it to say that this unusual character study takes you places you have not been and may not care to go. Once you've made the trip, however, it'll burn itself onto your memory.

Distributed via Breaking Glass Pictures, in Danish and Swedish with English subtitles and running 123 minutes, Queen of Hearts opens theatrically this Friday, November 1 -- in New York City at the Cinema Village and in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Glendale. 

Sibling sex: DANIEL & ANA from Michel Franco, makes NYC debut at Quad Cinema

Breaking a taboo is one thing. Being forced to break it -- at gunpoint with your and your family's lives threatened --  is quite another, the result of which we see played out in DANIEL & ANA, the Cannes' Directors Fortnight selection now making its theatrical debut. Written and directed by Michel Franco (shown below: a Mexican movie-maker whose first full-length film this is) this short work (only 90 minutes including rather lengthy end credits) is disturbing, all right. How could it not be, given the central event, which is, we are told, based on a true story in which only the names have been changed?

Mexico, certainly one of the kidnap capitals of the world, plays host to this story and its lead characters: the contented and close-knit brother and sister of the title.  Daniel's a high school student, on the cusp of young manhood, while Ana is several years older and about to be married.  Their family is part of Mexico's haute bourgeiosie -- those "haves" who have the most -- and Ana is about to marry into more of the same. Señor Franco lays all this out non-judgmentally. In fact, the siblings' kidnappers, shown below, don't look too shabby, either, and so the rather enormous "class differences" we often see and hear about in Mexico are certainly not being hammered home in undue fashion. What happens here is all just "business," dontcha know.

TrustMovies apologizes for giving away more of the plot than he usually profers. All of the above, in any case, is on view within the first 20 minutes. And while the signal event of the film is certainly vital, how the characters react to it -- and why -- is key to our coming to terms with the movie. It's here that Franco stumbles rather severely.

The filmmaker allows us to watch the entire sex scene, which is handled about as chastely as possible, considering the nature of the "crime."  (Perhaps a little too chastely, where our pivotal view of Daniel is concerned.)   You won't accuse Franco of pandering, necessarily, but then you wait -- post-sex, and then post-release of the victims -- for that all-important scene of their pair's first connection/conversation after the fact.  It never happens.  So very much would spring from the way in which the older of the two handles (or is unable to handle) her younger brother in this terribly fraught time that the audience deserves to be a part of this. But Franco, being I guess a very untutored filmmaker, doesn't bother with this pivotal scene at all.

Sure, we see later reactions -- from the siblings, her fiancé, his girlfriend, their parents -- but everything from here on in, even a surprise or two, seems a little too rote because the most important moments in the movie have been left out. (Even if no communication happened immediately post-release, we need to see that in order to better understand.)

The performances are as good as the script and direction allow. Marimar Vega (shown above, with Chema Torre, who plays her soon-to-be husband) exhibits poise and the necessary maturity to handle not only the event itself, but its terrible follow-up, while Darío Yazbek Bernal (shown below, who is Gabriel Garcia's half-brother), bearing more than a passing resemblance to a younger James Franco, is a basket case of depession and fear as the younger participant who cannot get out from under his guilt. (Does he realize that what happened might be, on some level, exactly what he wanted?)

There are other problems with the film. The music, with its beautiful, dirge-like score, begins to be quite unhelpful -- used, as it is, in place of more fitting dialog or better visuals in order to up the movie's sadness quotient. Someone must have realized that this was not working properly, however, because after the first few uses, music pretty much disappears for the remainder of the film.

I can't write off the movie completely, though. There is enough strength in the situation and performances to make it worth the time of anyone who has in any way been connected to this vile experience or who is concerned with the sale of forced pornography (the end title cards give some information on this), or for therapists who may end up treating those who've been involved in this kind of situation.

Daniel & Ana, from Strand Releasing, opens Friday, August 27, at New York City's Quad Cinema.