Minor Mishaps

Minor Mishaps is about a family that is plunged into crisis when the mother dies in a road accident. A central place in the family now stands empty. That gives rise to conflicts, but also creates new opportunities for the various family members, who have become locked into their roles.

One of the protagonists is the youngest daughter Marianne, an awkward but kind-hearted girl who cannot really work out how to free herself from the role of Mum and Dad's good little girl. Can she, and will she, now? Her older siblings, the painter Eva and the overworked contractor Tom, do not have the reserves needed to fill their mother's place either. Eva's bohemian life is rather chaotic, and Tom cannot reconcile family life with long days at work.

The marital crisis between the father's brother Søren and his wife Hanne seems strangely superfluous in a film that already has more than enough issues.

The acting is good in every role, and the film convincingly combines seriousness with an often grotesque kind of humour. The film's weakness is that it does not have much forward momentum and therefore becomes too episodic.