Review of Breaking the Waves (2014) by Eric K — 10 Feb 2010
Regularly praised as one of the great films of the 90s, this is the usual Von Trier mess of undeniable formal skill and smarmy, shallow ideology. Katrin Cartlidge, excellent as usual, plays the sole mouthpiece of reason.
Emily Watson acts flawlessly, but long-suffering little Bess is just a case study in how to spin one's parasitic selfishness, masochism and idiocy into misunderstood martyrdom. The problem isn't so much that the townsfolk conclude that "Bess was good", it's that Von Trier seems to agree with them whole-heartedly.
But administering handjobs to strangers on the bus really doesn't make her Joan of Arc, even if she has the IQ of Forrest Gump, and by the end of the film, she had shed enough tears for herself that I felt no need to join in.
This review of Breaking the Waves (2014) was written by Eric K on 10 Feb 2010.
Breaking the Waves has generally received positive reviews.
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