Film Reviews

Just Another Love Story

• Rating:
• Director: Ole Bornedal.
• Starring: Anders W. Berthelson, Rebecka Hemse, Nikolaj Lie Kass.
• Details: Denmark / 100mins (18).

I couldn't decide in what genre Just Another Love Story belongs: it's a mystery crime thriller rom-com (the 'com' being of the black variety) with an arthouse bent, so I decided to be safe and stick it under the 'drama' banner. This mix up of styles is at first fun but then it succumbs to the ridiculousness of it all. "Beautiful women and mystery - isn't that how all film noir begin?" Family man Jonas (Berthelson) is a crime scene photographer who is involved in a horrific car accident with Julia (Hemse). Julia is just home from Thailand where she shot her boyfriend Sebastian (Kass)…We'll find out why - but she wakes up from her coma blind and suffering from amnesia. Sick of his humdrum suburban life and enthralled by the mysterious patient, Jonas poses as Julia's boyfriend and Julia accepts his love. However, just as Jonas begins to enjoy his new identity, Julia's returning memory and eyesight, and the appearance of a heavily bandaged, wheelchair-bound patient, throws a spanner in the works... Just Another Love Story is While You Were Sleeping for the arthouse crowd. With numerous flashbacks and flitting from one story to the next, this mystery-crime-thriller-rom-com can be impenetrable at first, but once it settles down it can be a rewarding experience. Director Ole Bornedal, who also wrote the script, delights in second-guessing the audience's perceptions with bizarre plot twists - buying into these absurd developments is paramount if one is to enjoy this. This is fun for a time but those developments get fantastic with one too many 'there's no way...' moments by the close. Just Another Love Story may not be just another love story, but it's determination to be wacky and different stretches the realms of credibility.

Review by Gavin Burke