After the Wedding

Danish director Susanne Bier had stylistic roots in the Dogme 95 movement, and still relies on a handheld camera, fractured editing, and super-close-ups of eyes or lips, but she’s definitely a distinctive filmmaker in her own right. This story is soap-opera-like but surprising, melodramatic but funny at times, with several twists that I won’t divulge. All the actors are good if unfamiliar, the one recognizable face being Mads Mikkelson, who was the villain in Casino Royale, and is here an expat who helps run an orphanage in Bombay. He is reluctantly called back to Denmark by a prospective donor, who then invites him to his daughter’s wedding, which sets off a string of revelations from a group of believably complicated characters, none of whom is quite what they seem at first glance. So even while plot-driven, the film is realistically ambiguous about motivation and emotion, and layered in its depiction of place and people. (2007, dvd, n.) *7* (MC-78.)