After the Wedding

Within myself, I have mixed reviews about this movie,  After the Wedding, made in Denmark. I love the realism of movies made in other countries. The acting is supreme. The photography. The directing. The story was totally gripping until the fourth quarter of the movie when I couldn't quite believe it any more and felt the premise was false.

Has anyone else seen After the Wedding?

Without revealing too much, I will explain that a powerful person in the movie, powerful with money, will, and truly goodness of heart, wanted something a certain way, and his decision and his offer left the hero with a moral dilemma. The hero of the movie was put into an intolerable situation. There were many ramifications to his dilemma.

Although there was no right choice and, from my point of view, perhaps impossible for him to keep his integrity whichever choice he made, I'm inclined to think he made the lesser choice. I say this knowing that it is very possible that if he had made the other choice, I might then be thinking he should have made the other choice again, but I don't think so.

Before I go further, I do want to say that either choice would have taken great courage.

What would I do in his place? A tough decision. The decision was sort of like having to choose to save your own child and live up to your promise to him or to not live up to your promise and, in exchange, save the lives of many other children. Wherein did integrity lie?

What was not believable to me was the demand that the powerful man made. It made no sense to me. I couldn't believe he would make that demand, and I couldn't believe that the hero would have allowed that demand to stay.  To my mind, it was unconscionable for the powerful man to make the demand he did. I like to think I would have fought the demand  tooth and nail and won,  but until faced with the situation, how do I know what I would really do? Who knows,  in the same situation, I might have let the demand stay too and felt forced to make a painful decision.

As it was, the hero allowed himself to be cornered. He knuckled under the powerful man and let the unjust demand prevail. I wish the hero had fought that demand right and left.

I would like you to see the movie. It will hold your attention, and you might see it differently from the way I see it. I would love to know what you think about After the Wedding.