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30 comments in total

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68 out of 76 people found the following comment useful :-
Typical Anders Thomas Jensen, but he has grown!, 5 April 2005

Author: torben andersen from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Anders Thomas Jensen may be the most interesting danish director/scriptwriter in recent times, and this movie certainly proves it. The neo-nazi Adam (Ulrich Thomsen) is sent to resocialization at a local church with a priest who can't do anything but turn the other cheek. In a religious context he relive the life and destiny of Job who's punished by God. This could very well have been an abstract and far-our movie, however Thomas Jensen has the ability to make it understandable, humorous and very entertaining, while keeping the love and respect of the religious story. He also has the ability to make the audience reflect the content, by providing black humour, quickly followed by caring tragedy. One might not always know why one laughs. Following the success of Blinkende Lygter and the not-so-great De Grønne Slagtere, Thomas Jensen places this story in between, by providing a black comedy with a great mind.

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61 out of 70 people found the following comment useful :-
An extreme and wonderful movie, 14 August 2005

Author: renateaa from Norway

I went to see this film last night. I had no expectations going in to it, other than the fact that I really love Danish films and the actor Mads Mikkelsen. The movie really blew me away. The story is told in such a way that you find yourself laughing in the strangest places, you get really shocked in other places and the communication between the persons is extreme and wild! The acting from all of the actor's is superb!You go out of the movie theater with a smile on you face at the same time you find yourself reflecting on some of the key questions on life itself..

Go out and watch it as soon as possible!

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50 out of 58 people found the following comment useful :-
Fabulous story, excellent acting, 28 April 2005

Author: wudamay from Denmark

Inspired by the Book of Job, this movie is set in a rural church with Ivan, the church's vicar, and Adam, a neo-Nazi on social service, as protagonists. In and around this church, Anders Thomas Jensens unleashes an outright war of good and evil in a story full of black humor that leaves the viewer little choice but to laugh tears. Ole Thestrup as the local doctor beats everybody and everything in terms of comic morbidity.

And yet behind all comedy, Adams Æbler discusses much more serious issues. Is not Ivan's naive (in danish the perfect anagram: naiv Ivan) denial of evil more dangerous and irresponsible than Adam's evil, but realistic attitude? While Ivan suggests as Adam's project to bake an apple pie, Adam is set out to break Ivans faith in God. The audience is seriously in doubt as to which project will be accomplished and what comes after that. In the pursuit of both projects, Ivan and Adam change places and take responsibility in very surprising and strange ways. This story is told with perfect timing and moving gravity realised by great actors.

Despite all praise, I have one problem with this movie: I did not get the pun about the "Adam's Apple". Why make this play of words without making use of it in the story? And while I'm at it, the last scene should have been left out. Adam becomes ... well no, I won't spoil it.

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45 out of 49 people found the following comment useful :-
"I think it's going to be a good day.", 11 March 2006

Author: cimmeon from Finland

Anders Thomas Jensen has with his earlier films, "De grønne slagtere" and "Blinkende lygter", convinced the audience of his scriptwriting talents, especially his distinct sense of dark humour. "Adams æbler", clearly a more ambitious project, is now gaining him recognition as a director with a vision. Apart from merely being amusing and intriguing as a comedy, the film succeeds in communicating a meaningful message to the audience, while being deep and sufficiently complex in its values. Indeed, the film's central theme questions our central notion of good and evil without giving definite conclusions: whether there really exist absolute values is eventually left unanswered. Which is better of the two: the blindly devoted and fanatically optimistic priest Ivan or the nihilistic neo-Nazi Adam? Jensen attempts to twist the basic setting by making Ivan appear rather unsympathetic: while he helps people as a priest, he doesn't seem to do it because of them but rather because of his faith alone. It is often Adam, who notices this, not failing to observe (almost objecting to) the weaknesses of Ivan's behaviour, and yes, it is the cold-hearted, evil Adam who seems to care more and more as the story goes on.

It is difficult to sum up the whole film with only a couple of words. Mixing biblical allegories, especially the story of Job (the Fall being also an essential part of the film, yet not actually in the plot itself), with modern drama and dark comedy, Adams æbler does not fit into traditional categories. As a comedy, it doesn't straightforwardly tell what to laugh at, but the humorous is intertwined with absolutely serious elements. Thus the movie examines the outskirts of comedy and humour: it encourages the viewer to ponder whether the events are humorous or not. Even the music doesn't correspond with the comedy genre at all, but is constantly foreboding and solemn. It is a versatile film, but despite the exceptional blend, it succeeds in keeping the story together. And it's a good story.

Characters are well built and well played. Ulrich Thomsen gives perhaps his best performance to date as Adam (challenged only by his role in Festen), and so does Mads Mikkelsen as Ivan. Nicolas Bro, Ali Kazim and Paprika Steen must also be commended for their roles. Bro is a kleptomaniac and a drunkard, Kazim plays an immigrant Robin Hood gone bad, and Paprika Steen delivers a steady performance as an unbalanced future mother considering abortion. Special mention goes to Ole Thestrup as the devilishly comical (almost malicious, though we are not quite sure) Dr. Kolberg, who, while joking with his patients misfortunes in lovable dialect and showing virtually no respect to any taboos, fails to demonstrate signs of empathy or other proper human feelings. "He's done for. You could use him as a crapper. Have you had coffee?" As to its thematics, the film is utterly uncompromising: in its treatment of today's starkest evils, it never offers an apology or a clear moral; the final return towards the acceptable, so frequent in the comedy genre, doesn't quite occur. Instead, none of the problems are resolved or even discussed properly – rather, they are laughed at. As in his earlier films and as many of his Danish colleagues have been doing, Jensen is examining the limits of comedy – how far can one go in making fun of sensitive matters such as abuse, rape, violence, racism, disability and so on. Jensen is a provocateur: he discusses ugly subjects with little discretion, avoiding compromises. Like Dr. Kolberg, he wants to talk about things with their real names and discuss them as they are. But in addition, the comedy genre allows him to treat these issues openly.

It's about the battle between good and evil: Ivan sees only the good, Adam only the evil. Ivan tries to make Adam see the good, Adam attempts to force Ivan into seeing the evil around him. Ivan preaches about the distinction between good and evil, pointing out how much the modern world is in confusion with these terms and how much our common conceptions have changed with time. This is ironical, because the movie questions the whole distinction: in other words, it questions the consequences of the fall (not uncommon in Danish lay theology). While not making an actual statement, it points out that good and evil are, at least to a great extent, constructs of society and dependant on the point of view. On the other hand, by making Ivan absolutely blind to misfortunes in his life, it illustrates how it is possible to see good in everything, and close ones eyes from everything bad.

Adams æbler is a very interesting movie. It entertains, shocks, provokes, and finally, redeems. Whether this redemption is favourable as such, is left to the viewer to judge. All in all, it's an absolutely surprising masterwork, one of the rare gems. 8/10.

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29 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
a new Nazi meets with a priest - His goal is to make an apple pie, but someone or something, gets in the way, and this apple pie, becomes more serious, than first expected!, 14 May 2005

Author: Brian Nielsen from Denmark

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Get ready to laugh, wonder and be amazed by this movie, because this is one of the best danish movies I have ever seen. The weirdness and the obscure acting is just outstanding - The 2 new actors Ali Kazim and Nicolas Bro does the job well..

And who would have thought, that mixing comedy and religion could be that great - Anders Thomas Jensen you have done a fine piece of work.

In this movie you will also see some special effects, and it's done perfect - as you can hear, i am devoted to this movie - and I know I can't wait until it's out on DVD, I just have to see it one more time - I have even seen the trailer several times, just to be reminded of some of the funny scenes.. thumbs up 10 times!

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22 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
A wonderful movie, strong and constantly surprising!, 2 October 2005

Author: Matthias from Iceland

Having seen all these actors in earlier flicks I thought I knew what I had in store. I was wrong. I laughed like silly where one shouldn't laugh and enjoyed the movie immensely. It is set in a typical Danish village but there is nothing typical about the inhabitants. The priest has a way with people which even the Bee Gees can't dilute. The doctor has this wonderful Danish dialect which all you non-Danish speaking people will miss out on, but still he will be very funny to you all. It's hard to compare this film to any other, but maybe it owes something to "They Eat Dogs in China". And who would have thought that "A Half Kennedy" is a medical term? If you are only going to see one Nordic movie this decade, don't miss out on this one!

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12 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
A Job well done, 12 April 2006

Author: fnorful from United States

This was a wonderful surprise at the (Cleveland) CIFF, a well-made dark comedy.

Adam is a neo-Nazi on a sort of Danish "probation for reprobates", where society's sinners are given a gradual re-introduction to public life under the guidance of Ivan, a parish minister. Adam needs to negotiate a "program" for his several weeks stay; despite his efforts at being arch and cynical Ivan takes him totally in seriousness, setting "baking an apple pie" as Adam's goal. A battle of wills ensues between Adam and Ivan, with wonderful comedic support from Gunnar (Nicolas Bro in another wonderful role) the ex-tennis player and Khalid (Ali Kazim) as a not-yet-reformed terrorist.

Everyone is coping here, but the central character is clearly Ivan (perhaps the funniest I've seen Mads Mikkelsen!). He comes across as "Pangloss" with a twist: "everything is for the best" in this world only in that the devil conspires to make everything a test of man's faith. He is completely deluded yet completely steadfast. This rational irrationality is perhaps the greatest challenge to Adam; no matter what he does Ivan retains his faith…to a point where the comedy simply takes another course.

Not to give away the delight of this comedy's surprises, the characters cope with life, each other, are exasperated and exasperating, consistently inconsistent…the trials of Job are well played out in this barely disguised absurdist romp.

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14 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Black comedy for the cynical, 17 April 2006

Author: ninaboel from Sweden

Great movie. We saw it one late night not really knowing what to expect but this was over our expectations. Funny and well written dialouge, great acting and an amazing story! I laughed, almost cried, was chocked, laughed again and got some new tools to handle life with =) It is what I would call a black comedy in the same way as Blinkande Lyktor or Old men in new cars, both of them great danish movies. What caught me was the wicked story and how they really make it seem possible. I can imagine that this has taken place in a small church somewhere on the danish countryside. The dialouge is great, tons of punchlines that bubbles up the day after or even weeks after you have seen the film.

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16 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Fantastic!, 27 February 2006

Author: pbjahre from Norway

This film is a masterpiece not less! Anders Thomas Jensen has refined his talent through his films, and with Adams Apples it is shining! I read a review of this film here at IMDb, that was written by some person complaining about use of same actors, actors playing the same roles as in former danish films, and by the same Anders Thomas Jensen. It is true that Anders has brought the best of his characters, lines and much more into his next films. At some level we all (sane people) build on our experiences. Some people like to appear as they invented gunpowder at all times, for some reason. Which is OK. But it is certainly OK to it Anders' way too. Any way, if it builds the right way. Watch the film! You will have a great experience! If you work with film, watch and learn! Petter Jahre, Norway.

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16 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the greatest danish movies of all time., 8 December 2005

Author: Andres Bratterud from Norway

As an ardent devotee of danish film, I place this film on the top shelf. Right next to the best of directors (without further comparison) like Lars Von Trier, Nicolas Winding Refn and Thomas Vinterberg. I fully believe that this film deserves all ten shining stars. I will recommend it to everyone who appreciates films with a certain visual and emotional freshness and impact. With "Adams Æbler", Anders Thomas Jensen has made his, of my opinion, best movie yet. By far. His Last two movies, especially the first one, "Blinkende luger", was very entertaining, but this one moves beyond.

With his brilliant authenticity in the character of the troubled reverend, Mads Mikkelsen ("pusher", "bleeder", "blinkende luger", "de grønne slagtere") rises up from just being a good bi-actor, to becoming a complete artist of performance. Together with Ulrich Thomsen who plays the Nazi on re-socialization, he carries the viewers through a fresh, shocking, dark, utterly intelligent, and exceptionally both humorous and psychological experience.

Being more than rich on nerve-shattering imagery, great performances, and a very well crafted story, this film also leads a sharp edged, underlying parallel to an ancient story that comes to life in the film, and ends in a brilliant paradoxical way. A powerful movie! 10/10

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