Friends with Benefits

For those in the mood for a 70’s flashback  (in Danish with sub-titles no less) have we got a movie for you.  In 1998, writer-director Thomas Vinterberg made his mark with The Celebration, an emotionally charged drama about an extended family reunion that is shattered by a son’s confrontation with his father. In his latest film, The Commune, Vinterberg deals with another kind of family, one constructed at the whim of Erik (Ulrich Thomsen) who inherits a large house when his father dies and whose wife Anna (Trine Dyrholm, in an award-winning performance) thinks inviting friends to live with them will add some oomph to their 15 year old marriage.  When Erik asks a beautiful young student to join the commune, the hippie mantra “make love not war” turns on itself as Anna finds herself fighting to save her marriage while teetering on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Be careful what you wish for…in any language.