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Actors & Their Niches 3: Mads Mikkelsen – The Cheater/The Cheated

Posted on December 10, 2012 Written by ripitup

Mads Mikkelsen cute — Mads Mikkelsen image via tumblr.

Actors do have niches. Just remember Robert De Niro’s roles, and look at how many times he has been a cop or a gangster or a psycho. He’s talented and diverse, but sometimes either actors find a certain type of role or those roles find them.

And just how many times has the lovely James Marsden been in a love triangle?

In this article, we’ll look into the niche of Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Mikkelsen is an internationally successful and critically acclaimed actor whose roles range from a bond villain (Casino Royale) to a historical figure that played a huge part in a country’s reform (A Royal Affair), from a thief in a gang of friends (Blinkende lygter-Flickering Lights) to Hannibal Lecter (starting on NBC this winter). He also got the best actor award at Cannes in 2012 for his role as the wrongly accused school teacher in Jagten (The Hunt).

Yet for all that diversity, some of his roles have the cheating factor in common. He seems to find himself as the cheater or the “other” guy. Or he just might the one being cheated on.. Let’s take a look at all the cheating going on his films:

A Royal Affair- He’s the doctor that has an affair with the king’s wife

A Royal Affair movie poster via the movie’s facebook page.

It’s all the king’s fault, really. He is obnoxious, womanizing and a tad mad. Sturensee (Mikkelsen) is assigned to be his private doctor, and he begins to affect him in a positive way. But the not-so-smart king complains that his wife is way too boring (possibly compared to the all the women he’s sleeping with!), and assigns Struensee to make her fun.

You can read my A Royal Affair review to find out more about the plot, but for the cheating, the king –as crazy as he was- he totally should have seen it coming. I mean you don’t just send your smart, sexy, wise and much nicer advisor/doctor to spend time with your queen (Alicia Vikander) who is already cursing the day she married you- and marrying you wasn’t her choice to begin with.

And guess what? Struensee doesn’t seem to find the queen boring after all. And as it turns out, the queen knows how to have fun-sexy fun at that-when it comes to the right guy. Of course the affair will get them in trouble, but hey-I have a feeling it just might be worth it. You only live once, right?

Love You Forever (Elsker dig for evigt) – Married guy sleeps with the victim’s fiancé

Open Hearts- Mads Mikkelsen and Sonja Richter — Mads Mikkelsen with Sonja Richter image via imgobject.com.

Now, while I approve of Mikkelsen’s character’s position in A Royal Affair, I’m seriously disgusted by the one here. His character is a typically nice family man with 3 kids until his wife has an accident and hits the fiancé of a young woman (Sonja Richter).

The police don’t find the wife at fault, but her conscience wants to make sure the woman is OK, so she asks her husband to help her out, since he is a doctor at the hospital the fiancé is staying at. I suspect that by now you see all the problems with this request: she just gave permission to her husband to be around a young, pretty woman to comfort her. Of course the poor woman doesn’t know that it’s in her husband to stray (he never has before), and is certainly not aware of the fact that the fiancé is treating the girl horribly-completely shutting her out. She also doesn’t know that her husband is practically her only friend.

But still, it does make us think that if you feel guilty, you go making amends yourself and not send somebody else. It also makes us hope for a loyal guy who will stay loyal no matter what, especially if you haven’t done wrong by him. It’s natural and understandable that people fall in and out of love, but you wish they would have the guts to admit to it before cheating on you.

Mads Mikkelsen in Nu. Image via manpaper.com

This is a short drama in black and white with no dialogue (if there was some I was too crept out by one character and the atmosphere to remember). Some decades ago a guy marries a woman, only to realize that he doesn’t desire her-or any woman for that matter. Then he meets a man he is attracted to, but it is hard to have a relationship with a boyfriend if your wife is nuts (like Glen Close Fatal Attraction nuts) and is ready to do anything to get what she wants.

He does kiss the man and probably does other things, but the ending…Let’s just say that there’ve been many scary movies that crept me out a lot less.

Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky- Cheats on sick wife while under the same roof with her and the mistress

Coco_Chanel_&_Igor_Stravinsky — Image via wikipedia.

Creative blocks, needs to seek refuge, poverty, sickness…definitely too much for any man to handle. It is also very difficult to resist a free-spirited designer who doesn’t care about anything other than herself. But it is one thing to accept her helping hand and move the whole family to her house at her request, it is completely another to have sex with her, repeatedly, while the wife is in the house. It doesn’t make it any less disgusting that the house is a mansion. Yuck.

Worse than Love You Forever in terms of the cheating? Absolutely. At least the other guy had the decency to cheat without his wife present.

After the Wedding (Efter brylluppet) (*minor spoilers!!)

after the wedding poster via amazon. — After The Wedding poster via amazon.

After The Wedding will remain as one of the most impactful movies I’ve seen. The story is powerful, the acting flawless, the dialogue well-written and delivered. Not to mention, it makes the best of its grey characters. And the cheating has happened before the timeline of the movie as we see it, but without it, the story wouldn’t have happened.

So here it is:

Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen) runs an orphanage, helping and educating as many kids he can. But he doesn’t have the money, nor does the administrator, to keep it afloat. So despite how much Jacob hates Denmark (his own country) and the Danish (his nationality), he goes to meet the interested investor, who turns out to be the husband of his ex-girlfriend, who happens to be the love of his life. But the real complications arise when he is at the wedding reception of the couple’s daughter where he finds out that their daughter, is actually his biological daughter-one that he didn’t know existed.

Of course the ex has some excuses: one, he cheated on her-with her best friend. So she fled, not knowing she was pregnant. He didn’t come after her, and she met her husband- fell in love and got married. Why go after the cheating ex with whom she had a tumultuous relationship with when she has a happy marriage – and goes on to have 2 more children? (her logic, not mine)

Jacob is furious, but he can’t leave. He wants to meet his daughter and she wants to meet him. And the husband seems to put more and more roadblocks before he gives the money.

OK, a lot of people cheat and that’s wrong and everything…but this is by far one of the most interesting movies that feature cheating that I have seen.

Last but not least: Prague

Now, to give him credit, he gets cheated on here. But he doesn’t want to quit the marriage just like that, and yet he can’t just go and forgive his wife (and whether she wants to be forgiven is another story), he does go on to hook up with another woman. I wouldn’t consider it cheating when he was cheated on first- but he does attempt an extramarital activity, and he was cheated on. Talk about a theme.

Which of Mads’ niche movies have you seen? Which ones do you like best? And if you had to compare between the niches of De Niro, Marsden and Mikkselsen, whose niche do you find to be the most intriguing/fun?

Review for A Royal Affair starring Mads Mikkelsen: Denmark’s Submission to the Oscars

Posted on November 10, 2012 Written by ripitup

Trailer, Expectations, Premise

I’d been looking forward to see A Royal Affair, and I am so glad it didn’t disappoint. It was as exquisite, touching, romantic and inspirational as I expected to be. And while it is primarily a romance/drama period piece, it has its genuinely funny moments.

It is one of those movies whose trailer gives you all the main points: a love affair between the queen and her husband’s physician, the idealistic views of the lovers making things even more complicated and the quite unique relationship between the doctor and the king.

However this is not a thriller, and we were never expecting plot twists. The trailer is supposed to be just a taste of what’s the come, and it does a wonderful job of doing that.

But while the affair gets to be the catalyst of bigger events, the movie is so much more than a love story (though it has become one of my favorite love stories ever).

The movie is about an era when personal freedom or free press doesn’t exist. When free-thinking get you despised or in trouble, and even if you are a princess, you don’t have a lot of options. And politics is as about personal interests, religious influences and manipulation as ever.

Plot

Denmark’s young king Christian (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) couldn’t have been less suitable for being a king: he is impulsive, childish, inappropriate and…well, he looks and acts crazy. He’d much rather sleep around with hookers, drink a lot and be oblivious to anything else around him. Of course this serves the court’s interest, as they do whatever they want and just get Christian’s signature. So while the court thrives, the country is in a horrible state: people are dirt poor, there is no freedom of speech or press, there’s corporal punishment for prisoners and serfs…

When English princess Caroline Mathilde (Alicia Vikander) marries the king, she is willing to make the best of the arrangement. However her romantic illusions disappear when Christian treats her horribly, making her avoid him for good as soon as she delivers a son.

But things at the kingdom things are about to change tremendously with the arrival of Doctor Johann Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen), who has charmed the king with his unique way of approaching him. He is everything the court despises: a free-thinker.

Christian decides that Struensee can make the “boring” queen fun, and Struensee quickly realizes that she is a lot more like him than he initially realized, and as they spend more time together, the attraction and friendship soon turn into something much more intense.

They also realize that, together, using Struensee’s friendship with the king, can make a positive impact on the country. But everything will turn out to be a lot harder than they thought…

What Makes It Special: Set in the 18^th Century, Yet Extremely Relevant

I’m absolutely in love with this movie. Hope it gets picked to be one of the foreign film Oscar nominees (and wins, should it be nominated.) It is just my kind of love story: two people share a connection on many levels, there is intense mutual love, they have fun together and most importantly, they fall for each other because of who they are- they can be totally themselves next to each other.

Then there are the universal and timeless concepts of freedom, freedom of expression (even those who are supposedly free don’t have that freedom here), individuality, oppression, religion, politics, ideals and sacrifice.

Last, but not least, there is the “unique” love triangle where the person loved by two people is not the queen, but the doctor. Christian despairs at the possibility of losing Struensee, and he started to enjoy the idea of being a king after he got into the picture.

In addition to the wonderful story, the acting is superb, and the set decoration as well as costume design would probably win Oscar nominations, had this not been a foreign language film. It has 2 Silver Berlin Bears: Best Script and Best Actor (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard).

While the movie as a whole can appeal to the masses, it will please period romance/drama lovers and Mads Mikkelsen fans even more. It might also come across as more meaningful for people who find that they don’t quite belong with the majority and society’s expectations.

It’s worth seeing more than once.

Also on Mads Mikkelsen

Elsker dig for evigt (Open Hearts) starring Mads Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter & Nikolaj Lie Kaas

After the Wedding starring Mads Mikkelsen – 2007 Best Foreign Film Oscar Nominee

Mads Mikkelsen Trivia

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Elsker dig for evigt (Open Hearts) starring Mads Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter & Nikolaj Lie Kaas

Posted on September 25, 2012 Written by ripitup

Translation at the theatres: Open Hearts

Meaning: Love you forever.

Elsker dig for evigt starring Mads Mikkelsen, Sonja Richter & Nikolaj Lie Kaas. Image via moviepostersdb.com.

Cæcilie (Sonja Richter) has recently accepted the proposal of his live-in boyfriend Joachim (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). But shortly after Joachim is hit by a car, ending up paralyzed.

The woman (Paprika Steen) driving the car is Marie, who was having an argument with her teenage daughter Stine. They race Joachim to the hospital where her doctor husband Niels (Mads Mikkelsen) is also working.

The po lice decides that Marie wasn’t at fault, but both she and her daughter are deeply shaken up, though not as much as Cæcilie, and definitely not as much as Joachim. He is too angry and depressed to let Cæcilie in, leaving her helpless. Niels becomes the only person she can talk to, as he’s encouraged by his wife to help her.

From then on, Cæcilie calls Niels often, finding a shoulder to cry on. Not over her guilt, Marie is happy that he is helping Cæcilie in a way. But soon Niels develops feelings for Cæcilie , and a guy who’s ever-helpful and sweet seems more attractive than a fiancé who keeps shutting her out in hurtful ways.

But for a guy who has never cheated on his wife before, things are about to get complicated. A wife and 3 children on one end, a beautiful young and sad woman on the other. Who will choose who? Can there even be a happy ending for anyone?

Elsker dig for evigt: Good but evokes extreme cynicism

*Warning: Minor Spoilers, and a Rant on the major characters

The film is good and compelling alright. It is tragic, makes you truly depressed as well as being thankful that you are not any of the characters. I know I was. But the characters go beyond to assure we will be infuriated with them, no matter how sad and compassionate we may have felt for them in the beginning. I may like a movie, but it won’t be a favorite romance of mine when I root for everyone but the “lovers”.

You know from the start you will not probably not be impressed with the love story presented. A married man with 3 children, getting involved with the fiancé of a paralyzed guy who became paralyzed because of his wife? Yep, no one is exactly expecting something deeply romantic and sweet here.

But sometimes, you are ready to forgive the cheater(s) with the right circumstances. It’d be cool if the wife was a bitch, and/or already cheated on him and he knows it. Or if the girl had lost her fiancé- and was coming to terms with his loss and not having sex with the married with the doctor while he is in his hospital bed.

Yes, we can all give her a little break assuming her messed up psychology-after all she went from happily and truly loved up to completely excluded and alone…But how she could let go off all empathy and not imagine how she would have felt if her husband would go and sleep with another woman after so many years of marriage and children? She was engaged after all. Let’s call it severe depression, and try to be more forgiving. I’m trying to be open-minded, but still failing.

How annoying is a guy that sleeps with a woman in that condition, not giving a damn about all the years his wife spent with him? Hell, maybe this is the only needy, affection-deprived 25-year-old who was willing to screw him so that is the reason he was a loyal husband all those years? But seriously though-is that all it takes? Some guys are only loyal because they are too lazy to go after women, but are more than willing to go for it when the opportunity is presented on a golden plate? That’s seriously depressing.

And the wife? Come on…Why do you still want him after how he has treated you? At least do kick him, throw things at him or something. Shred his clothes. But no, she has to hate the other woman. But guess what, the other woman only became so after she pushed her on her husband. You don’t make your husband a 25-year-old emotionally damaged woman’s best friend! You just don’t.

So yes, it is a perfectly alright film- well-shot (although I could have done without the dogma-style shots), well-acted, well-developed. It is the characters that are not exactly likeable, although except perhaps for Joachim-he lost the most, and it is understandable that he’d be difficult.

But if this movie doesn’t make you feel a little depressed about marriage, love, loyalty and life in general, I don’t know what will. If the premise of Mads mikkelsen’s The Hunt (where he is falsely accused of harassing a kindergarten kid) makes me not so keen on having children, Elsker dig for evigt makes seem the idea of marriage…not very tempting. I know it is only a movie…but it is a pretty bleak and powerful one.

Written by Anders Thomas Jensen and directed by Susanne Bier- who also worked as a writer-director team on After the Wedding, also starring Mads Mikkelsen. 2002 film Elsker dig for evigt is rated at 7.6 on IMDB by over 4,000 users. A solid 7.5 from me.

In the end, I prefer 21 Grams when it comes to “a freaky accident makes characters collide in complicated ways” premise. Depressing as that movie may be, no one goes around cheating on each other (well at least not anyone with kids, a nice marriage and a sweet wife), the guilt of the “crasher” feels more natural and real and the “comforter”… well, his (Sean Penn’s character) wife wasn’t that nice to begin with.

Let’s have some fun. Lessons learned from: Elsker dig for evigt

All characters do some pretty stupid and/or reckless stuff in the film, so the tips go to different characters. You know who. : )

-Panic when your husband is depriving you of sex- he might not be so depriving towards others.

-Tell the girl what might come 15 years after a marriage with kids.

-Don’t get out of the car in the middle of the road, and don’t overdo the PDA thing, especially not in the middle of the road!

– There should be a limit on how much you trust your husband

– Have some friends-so that when your boyfriend is depressed beyond words, you can have someone to talk to other than the husband of the woman who caused your boyfriend’s situation.

– Have a separate circle of friends from your husband’s –and make sure you are not too close with jerks who thinks it is awesome to be cheating on your wife (as long as you don’t leave the family.)

-Don’t stay home so you will know a lot of people and hey, maybe there will be hot guys who can comfort you –so you won’t be begging your scumbag-cheating husband to stay (the first bit is wishful thinking. It would suck to be her either way.)

After the Wedding starring Mads Mikkelsen – 2007 Best Foreign Film Oscar Nominee

Posted on September 9, 2012 Written by ripitup

After the Wedding starring Mads Mikkelsen – A 2007 Best Foreign Film Oscar Nominee

Danish Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen) has dedicated his life to the orphanage he is running in India, being a teacher/provider/friend. He is also doing his best to help the kids outside the orphanage.

So he is unwilling to go to Denmark to meet a businessman interested in investing in the orphanage. But Jacob also knows that he has no choice: it is either he gets the money, or they shut down. So he says goodbye to the kids, including Paramod, who Jacob has taken care of since he was born. His plan is to show the reality of India, get the money and fly back in a couple of days.

But the businessman Jørgen (Rolf Lassgård) seems less than willing to give the money right away. Instead, he invites Jacob to the wedding of his daughter Anna (Stine Fischer Christensen). It’s at the wedding that Jacob realizes that the orphanage might not be why he’s there: Helene (Sidse Babett Knudsen), his ex-girlfriend, is the bride’s mother and it won’t be the only shock he’ll get during the event, or his stay.

With a huge can of worms being opened, and Jørgen’s weird demands in order to give the money, Jacob will be in a dilemma of a lifetime, and Jørgen’s decisions will shake up his entire family. What the hell does he want? And why?

A Should-See: Like its characters, the film is flawed but highly gripping and impressive

After the Wedding (Efter brylluppet) is a gripping drama that successfully manipulates the audience’s feelings, as well as their thoughts of the characters. Jørgen, Helene and Jacob are all multi-layered, grey characters who invoke a variety of feelings in a short amount of time.

Jacob started out as my favorite character, for instance. How can he not? Here’s a guy, away from home, working to run an orphanage. It’s as selfless as it can get. He is so unwilling to leave the kids, who have become his family, behind.

And Jørgen doesn’t make an impressive start. We all know he is up to something, and it would have been highly unlikely that a man of his resources didn’t know Jacob was Helene’s Jacob. And what kind of a man brings an ex –an ex that he suspects his wife isn’t completely over – to their daughter’s wedding?

And Helene- well, watch the movie to see what she does…

But as the characters interact more, we realize that Jacob has a less than impressive past, Helene faced some challenging choices and Jørgen, albeit flawed, is a decent father and husband.

It’s quite a fulfilling experience to watch a film where you get to experience contempt and love, admiration and anger, empathy, sympathy and forgiveness for the same character –not necessarily in that order.

After the Wedding has a wonderfully humane story and a marvelous cast. That’s not to say the movie doesn’t have its flaws. The pace occasionally feels like it is slower than necessary, some characters add pretty much nothing to the story (OK-one character- the grandmother) and the frequent close-up of the actors’ eyes can get a bit irritating-to the point where you feel like eyes to Susanne Bier (director) are what feet are to Quentin Tarantino. And while I definitely prefer an obsession about the eyes, the movie could have used less shots of them.

But the forgivable flaws aside, I loved the movie, which was an Oscar nominee in 2007 for Best Foreign Language Film.

Directed and co-written by Susanne Bier, this 2006 gem is rated at 7.8 on IMDB. I’m rating it an 8.

You should give it a chance. Just like all movies, this movie has its share of discontent viewers, but stopping the experience is only a button away. So just start watching it. You might love it.

Also on Mads Mikkelsen:

Mads Mikkelsen Trivia

Looking Forward To: A Royal Affair starring Mads Mikkelsen, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard & Alicia Vikander