I knew that I had to watch this, from the very moment I learned of its existence. I was not able to catch it in the cinema, and I was thrilled to find a copy for sale. I like Pilmark, and he carries this well. His performance is the best in this; frankly, several of the others(in spite of a few of them being known talents... well, Kenter is great) are downright bad(Mieritz scrapes the bottom). The concept is marvelous, and this is a problem that we need to debate. Can we maintain the welfare state? The consensus here(in Denmark) is, of course, that no one should have to suffer because of something that is not their fault. But the fact remains that it costs money, and there are indeed people taking advantage of the benefits. It even gets political a little. A satire of this sort ought to be excellent. It jumps right into it, not wasting any time. Heck, it has magnificent points, such as how our social security numbers are used to keep track of us. The black comedy can be good. On the other hand, it goes for many low blows and cheap shots, it can be very gross, and it at times doesn't go above the level of caricature. The whole thing can't figure out if it wants to be funny or serious. It has also somewhat decided its stance right away, and could do more to actually discuss its subject. I would say it's over the top here and there. It tries to cover too much, squeezing in exposition awkwardly. The philosophy and such can be pretentious(the Africa thing is OK). I haven't seen other films by Rønnow Klarlund or Botoft, and would hope that they really are, or will get to be, better than this makes it seem. Characters tend to be flat or not credible. Editing and cinematography are nice at times, and the hand-held camera is put to reasonable use. The score music is distracting(and the English portion of the theme is poorly sung); this is not me refusing to be PC, I am saying that it undermines otherwise subtly effective conclusions to scenes by drawing attention to itself and to our viewing of something fictional. There is plenty of disturbing content and strong language, as well as occasional bloody violence in this. The DVD comes with an interesting commentary track(the two argue some... Fauli bitches a lot, and the director oversimplifies a bit to make his case), the trailer and "learn the lyrics"(merely the words on a still background). I recommend this mainly to those who, like me, want this dealt with. The best part of this? "I've heard enough to reach my decision". 6/10
