After the Wedding (2007)

Susanne Bier's plot-twisting After the Wedding is faintly ridiculous in its melodrama and, in at least one dubious plot point, unnecessarily cruel. But if you give in and allow Bier to commit a hijacking of your emotions, there's no limit to the impact this Danish film may have on you. Like Bier's earlier films Open Hearts and Brothers, After the Wedding uses deceptively naturalistic photography to capture traumatic crises and their ultimate effect on lovers and family members. The web of characters includes a billionaire, his wife, their engaged-to-be-married daughter, and a social worker in town from India to win funding for his orphanage. In the broad scope of relational surprises and unpleasant misfortune that follow, After the Wedding takes no chance of not being cathartic for every single member of the audience, but Bier's broadsides don't always amount to insights, despite the palpable psychic energy of a hardworking cast led by Mads Mikkelsen.