As Good As It Gets

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The Kingdom is the most technologically advanced hospital in Denmark, a gleaming bastion of medical science. A rash of uncanny occurrences, however, begins to weaken the staff's faith in science--a phantom ambulance pulls in every night, but disappears; voices echo in the elevator shaft; and a pregnant doctor's fetus seems to be developing much faster than is natural.So far as I know, this was made before Lars von Trier became an international sensation, or just about the time that he did. The lower budget is evident, but the film (or show) is actually much more interesting and well-made than some of his later work. Even from the first segment, we see this is a world on the edge of humanity.I hate to compare it to "Twin Peaks", because that is not the best comparison, but I can see a link... a world that is seemingly normal, though waiting just on the other side of the wrong door is a whole other world. The way the two Down's Syndrome characters were portrayed is wild -- characters with a secret knowledge, not limited but transcendent.

From director Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves, Dogville), I spotted this Danish language title in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so it was slightly strange to find out it was a mini TV series, but then again The Ten Commandments, also included, was a series as well, I was looking forward to seeing what it had to offer. It should be noted that this is the first of two series, the second called The Kingdom II, there was supposed to be a third and final series that would conclude all the story lines and answer all the questions, but one of the leading stars died, and as a result the series was cancelled, and it doesn't look like there will be a conclusion, but in a way, that sort of makes it more significant, maybe like Twin Peaks kind of stuff. Basically the series is set in a hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, called Rigshospitalet but better known as The Kingdom, it is the most technologically advanced hospital with quality medical science, many patients are cared for on the grounds and there is a good amount of staff. Throughout the show there are many strange things going on, such as a possible haunting, spirits or poltergeists of young patients appearing and disappearing, voices echoing through elevator shafts and corridors, two dishwashers who both have Downs Syndrome, and a female doctor becomes pregnant with the unborn child developing much faster than is natural. The main characters of the show include spiritualist patient Sigrid Drusse (Kirsten Rolffes), pathology professor Palle Bondo (Baard Owe) and recent appointee neurosurgeon Stig Helmer (Ernst-Hugo Järegård), and other characters include Rigmor Mortensen (Ghita Nørby), Jørgen Krogshøj (Søren Pilmark), Dr. Einar Moesgaard (Holger Juul Hansen), Mary Krüger (Annevig Schelde Ebbe), Bulder Harly Drusse (Jens Okking) and Porter Hansen (Otto Brandenburg). I will be honest and say that I could not follow any of the story lines going on, because I had to concentrate on the foreign language subtitles, and it was hard to follow the bizarre events, but I could certainly enjoy it being a little scary, freaky and in many moments funny, the rapid pregnancy and ending with the birth of the alien baby was the most fun to watch, so it was an interesting black comedy horror thriller. Very good!

This was originally made for Danish television, so don't let the length scare you off. Each episode runs 60-75 minutes, and they have pretty fast pacing with a large cast of characters. There were two series of four episodes made. Compared to a show like Lost, the reveals of the mysteries come very quickly. It's a mishmash of several genres, including hospitals shows, soaps opera, and horror (it uses the television medium in much the same way that Twin Peaks at its best did). They make good use of the grainy look of the series with spooky imagery. There's also a lot of dark humor. One of the major story lines of the first series is a doctor learning that a patient with a rare illness isn't willing to donate his liver to science, but is an organ donor. So the doctor decides to have the diseased liver transplanted into himself. There's also a Greek chorus made up of dishwashers with Down Syndrome.The second series is generally worse, but it's even more more insane and absurd, and at least it never gets boring. Unfortunately several major cast members died before a planned third series could be made (I guess that's what you get for casting a bunch of elderly actors) so the show doesn't end with much closure.

"Riget" is one of Danish Director Lars Von Triers many Masterpieces, not to say his biggest. Taking place at "Rigshospitalet" in Copenhagen, known as "The Kingdom"/"Riget". This is one of the craziest series ever made. If you don't get thrilled and have a good laugh by watching this, it would be a good idea to see a (professional) shrink. "Riget" breaks many of the moviemakings many unwritten laws. It contains a lot of unforgettable characters, from the absent-minded surgeon Moesgaard, the Swedish surgeon Stig Helmer who is responsible for a failed brain-operation on a little girl,Rigmor who is madly in love with the Swedish vicar-surgeon. The most wicked character in "Riget" is without any doubt Mrs Drusse who claims that a little dead girl called Mary is still walking the corridors of Rigshospitalet... During the series the situation become rather more mystic and full of chaos and the doors to another world opens with catastrophical consequents. Soon both the living and the dead must fight to get a place at the unstable Hospital. Stephen King's remake "Kingdom Hospital" is a piece of crap if you consider it together with von Trier's original!!!