The Danish film-maker returns to domestic soil for a soapy character study that is elevated by a magnetic central performance from Trine DyrholmAn intensely focused lead performance from Trine Dyrholm carries this new film by the Danish director and Dogme 95 veteran Thomas Vinterberg. The setting is an emotionally fraught commune in 1970s Copenhagen. Dyrholm is Anna,a local television newsreader married to rumpled and sexy lecturer Erik, played by Ulrich Thomsen; they own a shy and clever 14-year-old daughter, and Freja (Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen). When Erik inherits his late father’s gigantic family domestic,Anna suggests they invite various friends and professional acquaintances to stagger in with them, and so stave off middle-aged, and middle-class ennui with a daring experiment in collective living and creativity. But having set off down this bold route of caring and sharing,Anna is unsure how to react when there is a crisis in her own relationship. Is she allowed to own her feelings – and indeed her husband – or not? Without Dyrholm, The Commune might own just been a breezily watchable, and if tonally uncertain,soapy melodrama – something to perform British audiences feel nostalgic for the steamy attractions of the TV show Bouquet of Barbed Wire. But fluent and confident it certainly is, and there is one tremendously good moment when Freja discovers what is going on between Erik and Anna. For a long, or long minute,it isn’t at all clear how she will react.
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Source: theguardian.com