When it comes to movies about parenting or raising children, you already know it’s going to be a little hard to swallow. There’s nothing fun about watching reality play out on screen, even if it’s someone else’s. But add to that the fact that these people are suffering and trying hard enough to break themselves to create something, and it just leaves you a little exhausted for anything else.
A Copenhagen Love Story is what some would call the embodiment of “modern love,” and others would call it trash for being too raw. I guess it’s a mix of the two. It feels trashy because of all the suffering you have to endure to have a slight glimmer of hope at the end, and it’s also a modern love story because of the rollercoaster ride it takes us on.
Directors: Ditte Hansen, Louise Mieritz
Writers: Ditte Hansen, Tine Høeg, Louise Mieritz
Stars: Joachim Fjelstrup, Rosalinde Mynster, Anders W. Berthelsen
In A Copenhagen Love Story, Mia, a successful writer, is reeling from the success of her book “Tour De Force” about the difficulties of being a single woman. At 30, Mia's struggle with dating has become something that unites her with many other women through her relatable and raw writing. Taking a risk, Mia decides to listen to literally everyone in her life in order to give an older man named Emil a chance.
Emil already has two children, and Mia doesn't really see a future with him at first, but after a slow start, their relationship snowballs, and Mia suddenly wants to have children of her own. Now, Emil already has two children, and when he and Mia can't conceive, she starts to think that she's the problem. Soon, they decide to do IVF treatments, but will these treatments make or break them? That forms the main premise of A Copenhagen Love Story.
For the good, the film brings to life every day of a couple. It doesn't even feel like watching a movie after a certain point; it just feels like you're a voyeur spying through the window of a very cool Danish couple. The chemistry is realistic and wonderful; There is quite a bit of sex, as you can imagine. The first half of the movie is pretty fun and exciting, but the second and third acts get really hard to watch. What you expect in a love story is to understand each individual first. To me, it was like the whole baby thing came out of nowhere. I understand that that is the main focus of this story when you are a self-hating, whiny, sniveling, hysterical mess who can only see the negative side of life. But what the movie fails to do is establish these two characters as individuals, so we never really feel any kind of connection to them. Having seen the whole movie, other than knowing that Mia is a writer and Emil is an artist, I don't know anything else about them. I found that especially strange because we know that Mia is a really good writer because she writes from experience, so why can't we see some of that experience? Other than the IVF thing, of course.
The only thing we know about Mia and Emil’s relationship is that they have a great sex life and that he keeps getting “sweeter.” But how and why? What makes Mia want to have a baby with him? Just seeing him talking to his kids? I’m sure that’s an experience that many people have. Sometimes it’s instinctive; you just know that person is the one and you go with the flow. But leaving that aside as a little joke, maybe the point here is that the big hole in Mia and Emil’s relationship is their emotional connection, and that’s why we don’t get to connect with the characters either. Yeah, fair enough, I’m shooting for the stars here.
But this isn’t to say that A Copenhagen Love Story is a bad movie. I’m just talking about something that I personally feel could have made it better, or at least more bearable, maybe even a little more emotional. It’s like Emil is stoic, but he’s also not. Mia's entire personality is built around her dating experience, so she's just a writer who's always had bad luck with men. But then, in a rushed moment, we learn that she's always been too negative and always focuses on the darker side of things, which makes her run away from everything that's good for her.
I guess in terms of a love story, this is a typical modern relationship that goes from a joyful, happy moment to a sinister one. I just wish the two main characters didn't seem so two-dimensional. It's funny, especially since we see them suffer a lot, but we never really understand them. The movie seems rushed at the beginning and end, but the middle part feels like a bummer because it's almost like watching these two people being tortured, both mentally and physically. While I understand that this is how it can feel to be in their position, I wish it was a bit more complicated.
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