Foreign Film Pick: "The Inheritance"

Ulrich Thomsen stars in 'The Inheritance'

It is often said that death brings people, and especially families, closer together. The preceding couldn't be further from the truth for the characters who inhabit Per Fly's The Inheritance, a 2003 film from Denmark. In the tradition of Dogme cinema begun by Lars Von Trier Inheritance examines closely the disintegration of relationships during and after crisis using a minimalist style. In this case it is Christoffer (Ulrich Thomsen) a successful restauranteur and his young, beautiful actress wife Maria (Lisa Werlinder)who are put under the microscope. The two have an idyllic life in Stockholm: maria has been offered a full time contract at the theatre where she regularly performs to sold out crows and Christoffer is doing quite well in the restaurant business. But this apparent utopia does not last long as the couple receive news of the suicide of Christoffer's father.

Upon returning home for the funeral things get even more complicated than expected as we meet the rest of Christoffer's family. His mother, steely in her ability to show barely any grief, has already orchestrated Christoffer's take over of the family business; a steel mill in financial jeopardy. This throws a wrench in all of his plans with his wife Maria who desires to stay in Stockholm where she can enjoy her casual bugoise life. To her having to move to Christoffer's hometown is like a prison sentence. However, without consulting his wife he decides to take over the firm, knowing full well the misery that is ahead of him. She reluctantly follows him, even though she knows what is in store for the both of them.

Things only get worse for Christoffer and Maria. He spends too much time at work and not enough time at home and when he is at home he reveals nothing of himself to his wife. At one point she says to him ‘We have nothing in common anymore’. Sure this is the stuff of soap opera but the two lead actors inject so much humanity into their characters and inhabit them so well that we begin to know them as people, not as characters which makes otherwise somewhat predictable plot points more interesting on the screen than they would be on paper. By the time the film is reaching it’s end we know these two well enough to read the smallest looks on their faces. Take for instance when Christoffer has his new business partners over for dinner and he lets slip a business decision which we know will impact his personal life and we can guess Maria’s reaction before it even happens.

There is a smaller sub-plot about a company merger and insider back-stabbing on the part of Christoffer’s brother-in law Ulrik. The film is very clear about how it feels on the issues of running a business such as this: you need to be cold, hard, and unforgiving. But the film does not condemn the business world, it merely presents its ugly realities. Christoffer has a close adviser named Niels who advocates this kind of determinism only to be the victim of the same systematic necessity in the end of the film. The business will always preserve itself and the individual will always lose, either personally or professionally.

Ulrich Thomsen is great as Christoffer and is able to convey all different sides to a very complex and tortured man. He is capable of being entirely charming one minute and completely menacing the next. Were he an American or even a British actor he would no doubt be a household name. Lisa Werlinder is also quite good as his wife Maria and it is through her eyes that we are able to see how cold Christoffer becomes throughout the course of the film. In one great scene he actually fires his own brother-in law for starting rumours about him and when his sister, after a year of absence from his life, begs him to rehire her husband he does not budge an inch. Take for example an another scene where a former girlfriend tells him of her love for him and says “we could have such a good life together” he replies simply “I have a good life.”

The film, despite all that occurs in the first two-thirds, delves into unexpected territory at end so much so that if this were an American film would be sure to garner disgust and hatred. However it is true to itself concerning the desires and impulses that come from attempting to live the life you feel obligated to live and abandoning the one you've always wanted. Towards the beginning I kept wondering why more wasn't explained about the father's suicide. By the time the film was over and having watched Christoffer and Maria's journey I didn't need any more explanation.

It is amazing that films like this aren’t made more often in America. The Inheritance was the recipient of numerous awards and praise internationally when it debuted in 2003. It was shot in inexpensive digital, as is the rule and current trend in Danish cinema. An American studio could make twenty of these films for each Spider Man 3 and Pirates of The Caribbean it churns out every year. But the American film industry has become so incapable of seeing past opening weekend at the box office that films like this are never made. It doesn’t have explosions, car chases, or swash buckling pirates but it does have interesting characters who in the end never grow boring or predictable.

Other Recommendations in Danish Cinema
After The Wedding (2006)
Brothers (2004)
Open Hearts (2002)
Breaking the Waves (1996)