2/21: In a Better World (2010)

I saw the movie "In a Better World" on day 29 in my 34 Days of Oscar. This Danish film won the Academy Award last year for Best Foreign Film. In Denmark, the original title is "Haeven" which translates to "The Revenge".

"In a Better World" is the story of 2 different families, both dealing with recent hardships and tragedy. Anton is a doctor who commutes to Africa and works out of a Sudanese refuge camp in the region of a sadistic warlord. Back in Denmark, he is separated from his wife after he had an affair and his son, Elias, is being bullied at school. Christian is the new student at Elias's school and he has just moved from London with his father Claus after his mother died of cancer. A few days after his arrival the school bully bloodies Christian's nose after he sticks up for Elias. In retaliation, Christian beats the school bully with a tire air pump and holds a knife to his throat. When Anton arrives back in town, he takes the new friends out kayaking on the nearby river. As they are walking back to the car, Elias's younger brother is attacked by a young child and Anton breaks up the fight. The father of the other child threatens Anton and ends up shoving him around and slapping him hard several times in front of the children. Christian believes the adult Anton is a coward for not fighting back and, along with Elias, plans his own extreme revenge upon this bullying adult. Anton, meanwhile, travels back to Sudan and has his own encounter with the sadistic bullying warlord who is mutilating women in the region. All of these situations lead to an explosive finale where both Anton and Claus have to deal with the consequences of their children's actions.

I thought the 2 main adult actors in "A Better World" were the best part of this film. Unfortunately, the movie primarily focuses on the child actors and they do not give nearly as good performances. I had more of a problem with the child playing Christian than the one playing Elias. I'm not sure if this was a directing issue, an acting problem or something the script lacked - maybe it was all three. I never believed his attitude and found his sulking misdemeanor towards his dad and everyone else annoying more than anything else. This film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, but it is one of my least favorite films to do so in a long time. I wish they had focused more on Anton in Sudan than back in Denmark. His character was much more interesting when dealing with the warlord than when dealing with his wife and son. I also found the reaction of Christian and Elias towards the bullying adult too over the top and found myself thinking of Christian as a psycho. Once you remove the likability of a character, any possible character arch becomes pointless as you stop caring what happens to them. That was my final reaction to this film, I just didn't care.

Overall, I give "In a Better World" 1.5 out of 5 stars. By the end of the film, I just stopped caring what happened to anyone and was happy to see the film over. The main problem in this film was the action centering around the character of Christian. It may have been the script or the director but, anytime that character was onscreen, I was not enjoying this movie.