Voksne Mennesker (Dark Horse) Review

This is the second review of Voksne Mennesker to appear in these pages. You can find Peter Martin's take on the film here.

With his debut film, Noi Albinoi, becoming a festival hit around the world expectations were high for Dagur Kari's sophomore effort. Shot in Denmark rather than his native Iceland Voksne Mennesker drew decidedly more mixed reviews than did Noi but not because of any failure on Kari's part to hone and focus his vision. No, ironically, the problem is that in Kari's case refining resulted in a film even looser and lighter on narrative than his debut and many simply found it too meandering. But tap into the characters and roll with the rhythm of Kari's work and Voksne Mennesker proves a worthy successor to Kari's stellar debut.

Shot in gorgeous black and white the film revolves around Daniel, a life long slacker, and the handful of characters that make up his friends, family and other influences. We first meet Daniel as he meets a federal tax agent, a man greatly confused by how it is that Daniel could possibly have claimed only seven dollars of income over the past four years. He doesn't work or have any desire to. He has no grand ambitions, no obvious plans of any kind. Daniel's only goal seems to be to drift through life while expending the least possible amount of energy. Daniel's only obvious skill appears to be graffiti art, a skill used to earn whatever meager income he does have by painting commissioned love letters to various women. His best friend, played by the always solid Nicolas Bro, is Morfar aka Roger aka Grandpa, an aspiring soccer referee – a gag not quite as good as his role as a former tennis star in Adam's Apples, but still a pretty good one for the exact same reasons, which should be obvious to anyone who has ever actually seen Bro - who works in a sleep research lab and is generally terrified of women, particularly of Franc the young woman who works in the local bakery and whom he is in love with. Rounding out the cast are Daniel's estranged father, Franc's eccentric mother, who will be instantly familiar to anyone who has seen Von Trier's The Idiots, and a judge who takes up relatively little screen time but figures quite large thematically as he charts a parallel yet opposite course to Daniel's.

To talk about plot points in Dark Horse is to miss the point. The film is about moments and how those moments can add up to something larger. Kari goes so far as to break the film into distinct, numbered chapters to precisely that end. Particularly in the early going it often feels as though the film has no underlying point but as it progresses and characters gradually expose more of themselves it builds into something larger and more complex. What you end up with are two contrasting stories, one of Daniel taking his first tentative steps into adulthood and the opposing story of the judge opting to check out of the stresses and pressures of responsible life. Kari offers no comments on either of these choices, no statements on which of his characters chooses the ‘better' path, he simply lays them out before the audience to do with as they will.

The film is beautifully shot and subtly constructed. Each of these characters clearly has an extensive back story - Kari is loose but never sloppy – but we are given only the barest scraps, just the bits needed to make immediate sense of what is happening in the here and now with the rest left to the imagination. Though this is a story revolving around one man's immense capacity for laziness Kari actually expects a fair bit from his audience, giving you always enough to work it out but never more than that.

The film's Danish DVD release is absolutely flawless. The transfer is excellent, audio strong, and the release is hugely English friendly, offering a complete English menu system and subtitles for all of the extensive special features including a detailed interview with Kari and Kari's introductions to the deleted scenes.

While it may not be as immediately accessible as Noi, Voksne Mennesker is a film that will reward repeat viewings, a film of which it would be a huge mistake to assume that the central character's laziness is a reflection of the director's own character. Recommended.