Absolutely Fantastic

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This movie was about relationships and how they intertwine into each other. It seemed that a lot of the individuals overlapped into each others relationships. For example, the daughter who was about to get married, and her husband to be, faced overlapping behaviours. And then the father of the potential son in-law started to have feelings for the potential daughter in-laws mother. To me, these are blurred lines. As I can imagine the feelings the daughter and son would have when they find out that their parents were romantically involved. In this story, the blurred lines, seem to be acceptable, because of circumstances, however, boundaries is a factor. Does true love bypass anything else? Does true love transcend the rules that society upholds? Or does an individual have to always stay true to society based boundaries versus following ones own authentic feelings of what is experienced as true love?

Susanne Bier (In a Better World, Things We Lost in the Fire, After the Wedding, Brothers) has come up with another touching and very real exploration of human feelings with LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED co-written with Anders Thomas Jensen. In a story that could have become Hallmarky, Bier is able to score with just the right amount of human need, sentiment and reality testing that makes this little film win.In Denmark, a hairdresser – very significant occupation we'll find – named Ida (Trine Dyrholm) has just finished post mastectomy carcinoma treatments yet when she goes home to share the news with her husband Leif (Kim Bodnia) en flagrante with a young chick form work and leaves her loutish husband to his life choices. Also living in Denmark is wealthy Englishman Phillip, a middle aged, estranged man still angry at the world for the loss of his wife, leaving him to raise his Patrick (Sebastian Jessen)? Patrick plans to marry Astrid (Molly Blixt Egelind) who happens to be the daughter of Ida. The fates of these two souls are about to intertwine as they embark for a trip to Italy to attend the wedding of Patrick and Astrid, to be staged in Philip's villa with the aid of his sister-in-law Benedikte (Paprike Steen) who has always had eyes for Philip, a thwarted romantic delusion. All eyes are on the wedding Patrick has meticulously planned but eventually takes a turn when Patrick finally admits his same sex feelings, and his thawing father falls in love with the emotionally fragile but captivating Ida. It's a story about seeking love and having the courage to change your life - even when you think it's too late.So many threads to this story but Susanne Bier has tied them together nicely – not providing a Hollywood ending but leaving us with thoughts about how circumstances can alter the way we have been unsuccessfully viewing life. Grady Harp

"Love Is All You Need" tells a story of a woman who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She comes home and find her husband frolicking with another woman, just days before she flies to Italy to attend her daughter's wedding. The plot sounds eventful already, and indeed the interpersonal relationships in this film is portrayed beautifully, in an engaging and meaningful manner. Almost every relationship portrayed has some sort of defects, because nothing in this world is perfect. As the film quotes, "You can never give or receive enough love". "Love Is All You Need" is a film to feel with your heart, and empathise with the characters' joy and pain. Maybe it's a film that you have to be in a certain mood to like, and I was certainly in that mood to be touched by it.

Danish Films and TV series generally have high production values that explore their characters psyche so this is what attracted me initially. I hesitated when I saw Pierce Brosnan. Nice on the eye but hardly a heavyweight actor. Don't be put off by this. He is actually quite good. Obviously he can't speak Danish but this is nicely woven into the plot by him being a foreigner who was married to a Dane....so he can understand Danish but won't speak it. If you don't like subtitles don't be put off by this either as about 50% of the film is in English. This film grows on you from the start and all the characters are strong and very well acted. There are nice bits of quirky Danish humour that will appeal to English speakers...and a few twists and turns. This is probably a "girly" movie but as a man I enjoyed it and there is a lot more to it than the usual superficiality of Hollywood "Chick Flicks". There are no "black and white" characters...everybody has issues and you learn to accept their issues...just as you would with real people.....and yeah I might just possibly have had slightly moist eyes towards the end.