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

Posted on December 10, 2012 Written by ripitup

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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
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.

Nu

 

Mads Mikkelsen in Nu
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

Prague poster via amazon.
Prague poster via amazon.

 

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?

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: after the wedding, coco chanel and igor stravinsky, efter brylluppet, elsker di for evigt, mads mikkelsen, mads mikkelsen a royal affair, mads mikkelsen after the wedding, mads mikkelsen jagten, mads mikkelsen movies, mads mikkelsen nu, mads mikkelsen the hunt, nu, nu short film, open hearts mads mikkelsen, prague mads mikkelsen, prague movie

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

Posted on November 10, 2012 Written by ripitup

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A Royal Affair

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.

A Royal Affair
Alicia Vikander and Mads Mikkelsen. Image:movie’s fb page.

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 18th 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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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: a royal affair, a royal affair 2012 movie, a royal affair movie, a royal affair plot, Alicia Vikander, drama, en kongelig affære, mads mikkelsen, mads mikkelsen a royal affair, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, romance

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

Posted on September 3, 2012 Written by ripitup

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 A Royal Affair (En kongelig affære) starring Mads Mikkelsen, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard and Alicia Vikander
 A Royal Affair starring Mads Mikkelsen, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard and Alicia Vikander
A Royal Affair starring Mads Mikkelsen, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard and Alicia Vikander. Image via distribution.metrodomegroup.com

English princess Caroline (Alicia Vikander) marries the not-so-stable Danish king Christian VII (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) for political reasons. He is more interested in hookers than he is interested in his wife or the country.  So he decides that he wants a fun queen and tells his doctor/advisor Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen) to make her queen fun.

However, what the obnoxious Christian didn’t foresee is that while spending time together, Friedrich and Caroline will fall in love and complicate things remarkably not just for Christian, but the whole-country.

 

Seductive, Intriguing & Award-Winning: A Royal Affair

The plot summary above is solely based on the trailer as I haven’t had a chance to see the movie yet. However the trailer totally hooked me: I love passionate love stories and a good period piece. While I don’t really like the idea of cheating in a normal relationship, I love stories where it’d be a sin not to cheat (see Revenge, or The Ledge for examples)- meaning the marriage wasn’t voluntary, divorce seemed unlikely or the husband is a (psychotic) jerk.

I’m also highly entertained by the “spend time with my wife/girlfriend (or husband/boyfriend) while I do something else” premises. We all know who gets the girl/guy in these stories.

And as for A Royal Affair, you don’t just tell your older, charismatic, sexy and smart advisor (Mads Mikkelsen) to make your queen fun and have the nerve to be surprised when you realize they are sleeping together. Just by looking at the trailer, I can say I’d be sleeping with Struensee too. Any sane, miserable-in-her-marriage- queen would.

It’ll be fun to watch Struensee making the “queen” fun, while having quite a lot of fun himself. And when people find out, it will also cause a lot of complications for the nation that Christian may not have the chops to deal with.

*

Directed by Nikolaj Arcel and based on the novel by Bodil Steensen-Leth.

Rated at 7.7 on imdb and winner of 2 Silver Berlin Bears, I’m so looking forward to see A Royal Affair (En kongelig affære). What about you?

[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g11xkVjl7bM [/pro-player]

Also on Mads Mikkelsen:

Mads Mikkelsen Trivia

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

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: a royal affair, a royal affair 2012 movie, a royal affair movie, a royal affair plot, a royal affair trailer, Alicia Vikander, drama, en kongelig affære, mads mikkelsen, mads mikkelsen a royal affair, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, romance

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