At klappe med een hånd

One-Hand Clapping is a very sweet but also rather banal comedy that does not hit the mark quite as precisely as some of the other Danish successes of the late nineties.

The slender plot follows the middle-aged businessman Erik Svensson, who is planning his retirement with his mistress Helene. It is rather inconvenient when Svensson suddenly finds himself saddled with a paternity case. An old flame, Lotte, claims that Svensson is the father of her daughter Heidi. The quiet undertaker Anders, who has just handled the funeral of Svensson's wife, is hired to drive Svensson to the west coast of Jutland, where Lotte lives. Surely the matter can be settled in no time?

In its way the film is a coming-of-age story, for the inhibited undertaker comes out of his shell and breaks free of his mother, while Svensson, a hard-nosed, no-nonsense businessman, discovers his human side when he is confronted with the possibility that he has a daughter somewhere in Jutland.

The film's characters are somewhat caricatured. That goes not least for Peter Gantzler, who is typecast as the undertaker. The role is an almost exact copy of his role in "Italiensk for begyndere". On the other hand, Michelle Bjørn Andersen is nuanced and credible as Lotte, who only wants the best for her daughter.