The trailer for Love Is All You Need made me believe two things about this upcoming movie: a) That it was yet another soppy, cliched romcom, and b) That it was a British film. I was wrong, and I was wrong again. Turns out that it’s quite a moving, yet light-hearted drama, and it’s in fact a Danish film, with the majority of dialogue subtitled.
Perhaps they only used the English words in the trailer to attract people who wouldn’t usually watch world cinema. And with Pierce Brosnan starring, it wouldn’t be an unfair assumption that this was a British film, but even Brosnan speaks some Danish, and the subtitles don’t detract from the movie’s quality in the least.
We are introduced to sweet, middle-aged Ida (Trine Dyrholm), in her doctor’s office, insisting that after her recent affliction with cancer, a breast reconstruction won’t be necessary as her husband loves her for who she is. She then returns home to find the loyal darling cheating on her with Tilde from accounting. Ida is broken, but has no time to grieve, as she’s got to catch a plane to Italy for her daughter Astrid’s wedding. In her frustrated sorrow, she has a minor auto-scrape with uptight brit Philip (Brosnan), who just happens to be the father of her daughter’s groom.
After confiding in him about her disease, they fly together to his old lemon grove villa, which he’s given to the young couple; Astrid is kind and fun-loving, and Patrick is emotional but distant. Family and friends start to arrive, such as Benedikte, the far too flirtatious sister of Philip’s deceased wife, and Ida’s idiot husband Leif, along with Tilde from accounting. The presence of many people with many confused connections brings about a tangle of romances, some healthier and more truthful than others.
Of course, Ida’s charm turns the stone-cold Philip into a hopeless romantic, and they eventually have some kind of happy ending, but what surprised me was the events in between, and what kinds of endings the other characters get. Not all loose ends are tied. But there is a moving acceptance of cancer as a plot-line, rather than a mere gimmick to create sympathy for Ida, whose portrayal by Dyrholm is tender and endearing.
As a person who very seldom likes romantic movies, Love Is All You Need is enjoyable, because it is well-acted, well-written, and isn’t ridiculously generic. It has some real feeling to it.
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