Breaking the Waves

Rating:
Summary: Lower Depths of Love...sadness, confusion, religion
Review: Breaking the Waves, written and directed by Lars Von Trier Dancer in The Dark is a film with such poignant sentiment. The 1996 dramatic movie is about the confines of strict religion, mental illness, confusion, prostitution, and the power of love and healing.

Bess McNeil, deeply loves, obsesses and marries Jan (pronounced Yan) an oil rig worker. When an accident brings him back paralyzed, presumably forever, her pure naïve innocent and childlike happiness takes an unspeakable turn with devastating consequences. Emily Watson gives a persuasive portrayal as Bess; veteran actor Stellan Skarsgard plays her husband Jan; and Dodo Katrin Cartlidge is excellent as her real true friend and sister-in-law.

Jan convinced of his demise, unable to make love to Beth and orders her to have sex with other men and to come back and tell him about it. This, he says, is the only way he can make love to her and to further stipulate, he says he will die if she doesn't.

There aren't any clear answers as to why Jan asks his wife to do this. Is he delusional, perverted, or does he really feel Bess will be better without him? Does Jan really love Bess so much that he is willing to set her free, or is he thinking of only himself when he embarks his innocent wife into hell, cast out from the church, her family, the town. Is he telling the truth when he believes he can make love to his wife via another man's pleasure. Does he sincerely realize that Bess is mentally incapable of handling this request? Did he realize where she was going, what might happen to her? We don't get those answers.

During chronological sequence breaks, you will hear the soundtrack - songs from the 70's, Jethro Tull's Cross Eyed Mary, Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale, Elton John Your Song, Yellow Brick Road. The music is set to picturesque scenes.

Same as von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, the camera angle can have that dizzying effect especially when it pans the length of a room. You'll adjust as this intriguing conflicting plot develops. Again, the movie is long, two hours. There is graphic sex and nudity, both male and female. It isn't advisable for younger audiences. If you have seen "Dancer in the Dark" you will again be mesmerized by this complex emotional and moving film. ...MzRizz.

Rating:
Summary: More Unberable Than 'Dancer'
Review: 'Breaking the Waves' is even more unberable than 'Dancer in the Dark'. Once again Lars Van Trier feels he must shake the camera ALL THE TIME!! Why does this man insist on making the audience dizzy? In this film two people wed against the objection of some authority figures. The characters talk in soft voices and it is very difficult to follow what is going on, even though the story is very simple. The girl's lover breaks his neck during work. He tells her to carry out his sick fantasies. There you have it folk, that's basically the story. At least in 'Dancer' they had singing, but if you want to waste 2 1/2 hours of your life feeling dizzy and bored out of your skulls, 'Breaking' is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Cold, Warm, Boiling!
Review: I first saw Breaking the Waves in the theatres and it blew me away. It actually has something deep and complex to say and discuss. It teackles everything from sex, love, happiness and death. But its main focus is on religion. When Bess says soemthing to the point of "Words can not be loved...but humans can!" Your heart will break. Entering the church where women are not allowed to speak, she finally finds the voices in her head a little to quiet! She has something to say about her crippled husband asking her to have sex with other men, her mother calling her weak and stupid, her best friend coddling her, her own paranoia spinning out of control finally consumes her and turns all of her misconceptions about life into reality!
The actors are marvels to behold! Watson resembles a broken china doll but the star is here to me is Katrin Cartlidge; she is more than Bess' best friend but her conscience and wanna be savior. When religion is lumped into the same heap as moral standards but topped with power by the towns Elders the movie goes into heartbreakeing over-drive! The final chapter will leave you crying on end. Bess not only makes foolish mistakes but she makes good hearted ones in the name of God and in the name of faith. Breaking the Waves offers no answers to any questions but soul is snatched it not only makes painful to watch but painful to hear.

Rating:
Summary: Best film of the 90s, unforgetable performance
Review: Magdalene of our times. "Oti agapisen polli", because she loved too much. Greek tragedy, catharsis, much more than a love affair and pseudomorality of the Church. Reaching God by passing through hell, touching Him through emotions, not mind.
An amazing performance, the best I've seen on film recently, by Watson, full of emotion and indeed pain. I watched her again and again and I couldn't believe what she achieved! She IS Bess! Disgrace about the Oscar, but who cares about it.
Dogme or not, Lars is by far the best director in Europe, and this is his best film, far better than Dancer in the Dark by its debth and conception. There is still hope in this times of "incoming barbarism".

Rating:
Summary: Gets under your skin
Review: I sometimes respond more to things that go against the grain, that take conventions and throw them right out the window. I put off seeing this film for one reason or another for a while and when I finally saw it I was I was surprised at how it affected me. Breaking the Waves is alive in a way that few films are. It is a film that asks difficult questions about faith and love and compassion and doesn't have easy answers for those questions.
The central question or conflict in the film comes when Bess's new husband Jan is injured while working on an oil rig. Bess is told that he will never walk again. While in the hospital Jan asks Bess to find a man to make love to and to come back and tell him about it. It is hinted at that his mind may be affected by all the medication he is on. Bess loves her husband so much that she does this for him, believing that the power of love through this gesture might make Jan better. When she does this Jan's condition improves. Bess believes that her sacrafice causes this. Bess is soon banned from the church and from her town.
The question is: Did her sacrafice really help her husband, who was not expected to even live at one point, survive? The movie doesn't tell us, it lets us come to our own conclusions from our own life experiences. The movie takes us on this emotional journey and doesn't make it easy or pleasant. It certainly doesn't play down to its audience. Breaking the Waves is powerful, emotional, spiritual, totally unconventional and a deeply satisfying experience.

Rating:
Summary: Breaking the Waves
Review: This film is excellent! Contrary to the opinions of some naysayers, this film is neither too long nor too slow moving - unless real life seems too long or too slow moving. Breaking the Waves depicts the dark side of love and how overwhelming 'faith' can be on any human. This film also has a good, meaningful soundtrack which sets the tone of the scenes to follow. I wish more American filmmakers would step up and make a 'real' drama (w/ real actors) - involving the difficulties of living. Breaking the Waves is not the usual sugarcoated Hollywood version of life. This film is worth watching, more than once.

Rating:
Summary: the waves
Review: I don't know if this will be stating the obvious, but I'm just going to give my idea of what the film is about, seeing as the majority of the comments say that the film is beautifully
filmed, or the characters are one-dimensional and don't really elaborate in terms of the meat and potatoes of the film itself.

First of all, I don't think that Bess is retarded or has a learning disability like some people
have stated. I think that when Dodo says to Jan that she's not right in the head, I think that
she is referring to a breakdown that Bess suffered after the death of her brother.

I'm not a religious person, but I don't think that the film is blasphemous like some religious
people have said. If you watch the ending it is far more about the grace of God and how
He not only sees all, but understands a great deal more than we give him credit for. I
found the ending to take a very pro- religion stance even though the action leading up to it
could be construed as anti-religion.

I also think that the town depicted here is a rare one. I don't think Von Trier was trying to
depict a typical Scottish town.

As for the reason why Jan asks Bess to go with other men, my opinion is that he believed
he would be stuck in that bed for the rest of his life and he wanted Bess to experience sex,
knowing how much she enjoyed it and how much it altered and obviously affected her the
day of her wedding. He thought that she would never do that, until Dodo says to him,
"You can get her to do whatever you want." Then he knew that if he told Bess to do that,
she would, because he remembered how much she adored him. But, that said the reason I
think that Von Trier doesn't tell us why Jan has made this request upon his wife is because
she doesn't question it, and so neither should we.

Also, the reason why Bess eventually goes where she does (in the sky) is because she is like
a saint. Her gift, or so she says, is that she believes and she believes until the end, and God
understood that she believes. He saw her praying and He saw he evil deeds, but Bess -
unlike the old churchies who seem as if they talk to God like they know more than He does
- believed and that is the most important thing.

Now, I don't know how Emily Watson approached her character, but she seems to act on
instinct like Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant rather than a mapped out plan, and for those
who have said this film is one-dimensional specify why. I didn't find it that way at all. To
me the viewer can see that things are working behind the eyes of the characters. Also for
people who have said that the film doesn't really show the daily lives of these characters, if
it did the film would be pointless because that's not what it is about!

Rating:
Summary: If you like women, skip this movie
Review: I watched this movie because several people I know have raved about it, so I was completely shocked and disgusted upon my own viewing of this...I don't even know what to call it. Look, I am not a conservative person and I am not easily offended. It wasn't the fact that there is a lot of sexual content in this movie that disturbed me, it was its blatant misogyny. Even after the horrific scenes of violence, perpetrated both by and against the main character, the ending still troubled me most of all. Don't worry, I won't give anything away, but the conclusion leaves no doubt that the overall subtext of the movie is that she is basically saintly for doing all that she has done "for love," and for the sake of her "wonderful" husband, who by the way shows no apparent regrets at the end of the movie. I give it one star because of the breathtaking cinematography and Emily Watson's Oscar-worthy performance; she had me totally convinced. So anyway, if you are not a misogynist or self-loathing woman, you might want to try another film.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing and Uniquely Splendid!
Review: Like at least one other reviewer, I too caught this movie on the Independent Film Channel, missing the first few minutes (but seeing them later in a repeat). Even starting a little ways into the film did not lessen the grip this emotionally intense movie got on me straight away.

Emily Watson makes the five star rating I gave this film necessary with her positively brilliant work. The power of her performance is unmistakable and draws all the other actors up to a higher level when they are in scenes with her.

Unlike some other reviewers, I did not find this film to be sad or to have a sorrowful ending. Did they not watch it through to the very last, I wonder? By all means, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet or those who might view it again, do stay with it to the very end, and you will come away with a smile and a lightness in your heart and your step ~ that's my feeling and I believe the director's intent.

DO SEE THIS ONE!

Rating:
Summary: Truly Spectacular!!!
Review: I caught this film late at night on the Independent Film Channel. I did not intend to watch the entire movie, but I got hooked at once. The power of Jan & Bess's love simply radiated throughout the entire movie, something that I never questioned, despite the dismal way the movie ended. The things that we do for love can sometimes cause us more pain than happiness, and this movie is a true testament of that sentiment. Jan and Bess are two remarkable characters - Emily Watson was simply brilliant! Her acting in this movie was absolutely astonishing! It is true that this movie may be difficult for some people to watch - there is explicit sex and sexual violence in the movie so it's definitely not for children. But if you can get past any those blocks, this movie is an absolute gem, one you won't forget for a VERY long time!