Review of Adam's Apples (2005) by Marta K — 25 Aug 2012

Of Course, Some Miracles Are More Pleasant Than Others.

Terry Pratchett has said that the problem people have is that they assume all miracles are good. If something really, truly terrible happens that is against all odds, is that less of a miracle than something amazing which happens that is against all odds? And so, when many bad things continue to happen to one person, why assume that the person has come to the attention of the Devil? Why not assume that God just doesn't like the person? I mean, if you're to assume the attentions of either one and not just a string of coincidences. To me, the real problem is that people just don't seem to believe in coincidence despite the fact that, arguably, quite a lot of what happens to us only happens because of a string of them. The fact that you are alive at all is either a coincidence or a miracle, depending on your perspective. Some coincidences, however, are just a little more unbelievable than others.

Adam Pedersen (Ulrich Thomsen) is on probation. He has been released into the care of Ivan Fjelsted (Mads Mikkelsen), a priest or minister of some kind. (I don't recognize the vestments.) Adam is an unrepentant neo-Nazi who seems to have something planned for his future, after his parole is up, but Ivan basically ignores it. Also living at the church are Gunnar (Nicolas Bro), an alcoholic rapist, and Khalid (Ali Kazim), a Saudi who claims to have been robbing convenience stores to get back the money the parent company owes his family for their stolen land. Ivan does not notice that Gunnar is still drinking or that Khalid is still holding up stores. Adam decides that he wants to force Ivan to face reality, which the local doctor (Ole Thestrup) says is nearly impossible. Ivan is incapable of experiencing anger or sorrow, and he has a brain tumour the size of a volleyball and a son paralyzed with multiple sclerosis. Ivan firmly believes everything that goes wrong is the Devil testing him.

One rather suspects that Ivan is used to being the strangest, most intimidating person in the room, and that just isn't true anymore. From the very first, there is Ivan, who tells him that Adam himself must work out what he is to do there. Adam announces that he is going to make an apple pie, probably because it was the first thing which sprang to mind. He was merely being stubborn, but Ivan took him up on it. It's strange enough that Ivan handed him an apple from the tree and then told him not to eat it, because it wasn't ripe. That was probably part of Adam's prompt. Ivan is also firm about the idea that Gunnar is no longer alcoholic, that Khalid no longer robs liquor stores. Adam does not have to be the most perceptive of men to realize that it simply isn't true. What Adam cannot work out is why Ivan believes it to be true. And once he does, all he wants to do is break the man, prove to him that turning the other cheek doesn't work.

Perhaps the strongest turning point of Adam's rehabilitation is the death of Poul Nordkap (Gyrd Løfquist). I suspect "Nordkap" is some sort of Danish joke that I don't get on account of not speaking Danish, but at any rate, Poul was one of those people who, upon the German invasion, worked with and for the Nazis instead of resisting them. In a sense, he is who Adam believes himself to be. However, even decades later, he is consumed with remorse. At least one of the nurses is strongly implied to be Jewish, and the nurse takes good care of him despite what happened in his past. Poul saw what Adam thought was right, and he is now ashamed of it. What's more, Khalid is quite probably in the right, though there are holes in his claim. Perhaps turning the other cheek doesn't work for everyone, but Adam can't deny that it leaves you with more personal satisfaction than, for example, working in a concentration camp. At least, Poul doesn't seem to have gotten any satisfaction out of it.

When I read the plot description of this movie, I thought it would be more whimsical--and that Ivan would be our sympathy character. In a sense, we do feel sympathy for Ivan, though it's certainly true that he's not a well man. However, the movie manages to create sympathy for Adam. He only has so much interest in the pie, and he certainly sees through both Gunnar and Khalid. He would also give different advice to Sarah Svendsen (Paprika Steen), though it's arguable that he would have taken away happiness normal people would never have expected her to find. The problem, I think, is that Adam and Dr. Kolberg are the closest the movie gets to normal. Adam believes himself to be evil, but there is something to be said for having an awareness of your own personality, even if it's a bad one. Gunnar and Khalid are both a bit on the dense side, though it's hard to tell with Khalid, given that about the only Danish he has really mastered are words Ivan would doubtless like him not to use.