Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Just perfect...

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

"Den du frygter" ("Fear Me Not" in English) reminded me of David Cronenberg's movies. The results of the main character's taking the pills call to mind the risks associated with pharmaceuticals. We hear about side effects, but what happens to this man go beyond that. It would make more sense if the natural substances were more available.It's a very well done movie. This is partly because the viewer thinks that there are degrees to which the movie won't go...but it goes to them. We also get a look at the Danish countryside; its idealistic appearance belies the character's descent into madness. I'm unfamiliar with the rest of Kristian Levring's work but now I'd like to see more of his movies. Denmark has produced some great directors (Carl Theodor Dreyer and Lars von Trier, for instance), and I'd say that Levring is also in that number.

Middle aged Mikael,depressed, numb, sleepless. Beautiful house overlooking a body of water, quite a bit of money,seemingly happy marriage, surprisingly docile teenage daughter, all to no avail. Thus, this indictment of civilized, affluent, but ultimately lonely and empty western world. The world of people who have more than plenty, but always desire the impossible. Some imaginary, complete fulfillment that tops all the joys of the joys. Quiet, slow, but hauntingly eerie movie. It makes you uncomfortable, because it seems so easily our life, our nightmare. Real horrors do not involve psychotic masked killers or demonic spirits. Our own demons outweigh all the fiction.

To me this film was tedious and depressing until the trick ending which was like a catharsis for the hour and a half horror movie build up.A middle aged man takes a leave of absence from his job. He is unhappy and in a midlife crisis about the meaning of life.His childhood friend sums it up... "we had big plans but have to accept that this is all there is"He enrolls in an experimental antidepressant trial to help. Real changes begin to take place in his life with these pill but the side effects seem to be increased sex violence and erratic behaviour. There is the atmosphere of a horror movie--something really terrible is going to start happening.Then it is revealed that he was on a placebo (sugar pills) and all the changes in his personality and behavior were just part of him so to speak... you have this great relief.I don't like horror movies and since the first hour and half of this are like one don't recommend it.

but only a so-so rendering of what ultimately is the harrowing depiction of a man's mid-life crisis. Thomsen is awesome, as is Steen, and the atmosphere is "Dogmetically" foreboding, but the protagonist is never convincingly portrayed in any way other than the selfish, psychotic lout that he embodies throughout. I loved Levring's The King Is Alive, and in fact gave it a rare (for me) 10 rating on this website. But for me this is a classic case of a film failing to become greater than the sum of its parts. In the end, a decent enough character study, with a neat twist at the end, but nothing we haven't seen before, and done much better (Michael Douglas in Falling Down came to mind for me, at least). 5 out of 10 on my IMDb-ometer.