Review of Breaking the Waves (2014) by Grant S — 28 Apr 2017

Bess McNeill is a young woman living in a conservative village in Scotland. Against the wishes of her church she marries Jan, a Scandinavian worker on an oil rig. She is insanely in love with Jan and can't bear it when he leaves to do his shift on the oil rig. Then Jan is injured at work and everything changes.

A Lars von Trier movie that covers some interesting themes - obsessive relationships, euthanasia, manipulation, dogma and the lengths people go to for love. Some of these are only touched on though, with no real development or conclusion.

Moreover, the story is told in a very drawn-out fashion. The movie could easily have been less than two hours long but von Trier stretches it out to over 2 1/2 hours through extending scenes well beyond their usefulness and including scenes that add nothing to the movie.

Not entirely engaging either, so the 2 1/2 hours moves quite slowly. Bess is not a very likeable character - irascible, controlling, intense and a tad insane.

Ending is quite emotional though and provides good closure to the story. Another plus is the great soundtrack.

Overall, reasonably interesting but is a test of patience.