Open Hearts

Open Hearts is yet another excellent Danish everyday drama of the kind that got the press writing about a crisis in Danish film because a well-functioning formula had been found. A little more variety in the choice of themes, aesthetics and actors would do no harm, but apart from that there is no getting around the fact that Open Hearts is a superbly acted and affecting film that contains both humour and pain. Anders Thomas Jensen's dialogue is spot on, while at the same time seeming completely realistic.

Cecilie and Joachim have just got engaged when Joachim is involved in a serious traffic accident. He survives, but is paralysed from the neck down. His reaction is total bitterness and rejection, and he refuses to see Cecilie.

Joachim was run over by Marie, whose husband Niels is a surgeon at the same hospital where Joachim has been admitted. At Marie's urging, Niels offers Cecilie someone to talk to, but it goes neither better nor worse than that they end up in bed together. Cecilie needs comfort, but for Niels the situation is more serious, because he falls in love with her.

The affair cannot, of course, be kept hidden. It ends with Niels leaving Marie and his three children, even though it comes at a high price. The question, though, is whether Niels really is the one Cecilie wants. Once Joachim has thought things over, he reaches out to Cecilie again - but as a friend, not as a lover. The open ending suits the film's message that in our complex lives there are no easy solutions.