Trying to condense a bildungsroman-type narrative into a two and one-half hour film is admittedly challenging. The result is gaps in the narrative, which means that the viewer loses track of the trajectory. The main character is built along the lines of a traditional tragic hero, whose tragic flaw could simply be passed off as the usual hubris. Yet he is more than simply a proud and self-absorbed Lear or Hamlet. It is more complex (and perhaps more inexplicable) than this, for he doesn't hesitate wooing the daughter of a rich Jew in Copenhagen to advance his career, yet in what perhaps could be called the climax of action, his pride resurfaces in undisguised form (details left unspecific here because it would be a spoiler).
Review of A Fortunate Man
