Efter brylluppet 2006

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: [Director] Bier's careful touch and the skill of the cast make After the Wedding an emotional and often lovely film. It's mostly a series of two-person scenes, delicately filled in with character details. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: For once, the bigger the emotion, the truer the moviegoing experience. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: As the premise might suggest, Jensen's dramatic structure is so visible this sometimes seems like a late Rod Serling teleplay, but Bier has proved highly adept at merging conventional drama with the immediacy of the Dogma 95 movement. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A thrilling -- and harrowing, and beautiful -- celebration of the unpredictability of life. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Yes, they throw more than rice at this Wedding, but it's all in service of an astutely observed and sometimes shattering human drama. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: After The Wedding could be the cinematic equivalent of a Coldplay song. And while that isn't necessarily a slam, it isn't a recommendation either. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Life's a mess, it says, but you can't sweep up the dirt until you've taken a good, hard look at it. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It's that paradoxical melodrama that point-blank refuses to acknowledge that it's being melodramatic, conveying its scenario with enough intensity, psychological acuity and forceful acting to ignore labels and flat-out overpower audiences. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: In my book it's high camp -- a thrill ride for emotion junkies. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: You leave the movie feeling exhausted, argumentative and exhilarated, surely the sign of a powerful film in any language. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Talented filmmaker Susanne Bier, armed with an outstanding compositional sense, keeps control over the storms of melodrama that swirl in this rich weepie. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: One of the more interesting themes of this movie is the question of which is more important to a cause, the man or the money. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Mikkelsen, Lassgard, Knudsen and Christensen seem to burrow into the deepest parts of their hearts and souls to turn the stuff of soap opera into a search for the real self. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Evidently, this bloated piece of Oscar-nominated nonsense was a big hit in Denmark, which makes me think there's a glittering future in that otherwise discriminating country for several seasons of Days of Our Lives. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Crisply written and acted soap opera from Susanne Bier, but vague in its intentions. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A deceptively unadorned movie that ends in huge, untidy and enormously satisfying emotions. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: The characters may suffer once the bride walks down the aisle, but [director] Bier, [writer] Jensen and their first-rate cast work together like a match made in heaven. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: [Director] Bier has lots [of] surprises up her sleeve to keep After the Wedding humming for two solid hours. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: May be the strangest and most surprising film you'll see this year, in that its character development runs counter to the expectations aroused by its narrative sequencing. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Lovely, dense and surprising. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is a fine tale of families and secrets, and its seemingly cold exterior gives way to something unexpectedly warm and soft inside. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: What feels at first like a quiet, straightforward picture builds into one of the richest and most satisfying of the year so far, in any genre or any language. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: There are no guarantees with this sort of thing, but it really is possible that one or two scenes in After the Wedding will stay with you for the rest of your life. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: Sounds like a soap opera. But Danish director Susanne Bier builds a high-minded melodrama from this plot material. Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: At two hours, After the Wedding stretches out family flux too thinly and waits too long to reveal the final, devastating secret that we already know. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Even when [Bier's] movie ventures in deepest contrivance it pulls you along like a willing puppy on a gently tugged leash. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: It speaks the universal language of high romance in the distinctly unromantic Danish tongue. But don't be put off by that. It is a kind of treat we are only rarely offered these days. Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: At heart, Bier is an actor's director, and it's the uniformly fine performances she engenders from her cast that make 'After the Wedding' as satisfying as it is. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Bier's insistence on adding even more melodramatics into the mix feels like a mistake. Read more

Gunnar Rehlin, Variety: Thanks to a tight script, sharp direction and excellent actors, new film by Danish helmer Susanne Bier manages to be both emotional and engaging. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: The film brings us face to face with the movie's starkest truth: It's not whether or not we prevail over the inevitable setbacks in life, but who we connect with along the way. Read more