Had I wathced this when it first came out, the disturbing impact would have been much more significant. Alas, even the news in the past couple of years has managed to surprass the desired effect this film intends to deliver. Still, worth a watch...

92.000

Tense unsettling, and totally believable. Well-acted and a pretty solid film.

878

To tell the truth, I was not expecting a "deep" film like that. Thank you Mr.Vinterberg.

Holy shit, this film is ridiculously intense. I loved every minute of it but there were moments where I felt that Michael's character was a bit too over-the-top (surprisingly, the end of the film wasn't one of them)

Possesses a driving energy from the opening bell, with strong performances all round. Still, whereas von Trier's films tend to receive very mixed reviews, this movie is much more uniformly liked. Perhaps there is something easier to digest here: a single, universally agreed, bad guy, representing a dark centre of gravity; the audience can thus understandingly accept the "humanity" of the rest of the ensemble; an infliction of justice to warm the vengeful heart; and the guy even gets the girl.

Ugly and beautiful! Hysteric and calm! Tragic and funny! Brilliant and... extraordinary brilliant!

However i'm not quite fond of dogma 95, i really enjoyed watching this movie. The first half hour is a hard nut to crack but when the pieces start to fit together the movie shows its true value. Humor and drama find a stable balance during the story and the acting is even a bit surrealistic. Even though the principles of the dogma threatens to devaluate the picture, the genius editing ensures "Festen" of it's importance in movie-history.

Compelling character piece and family drama. It doesn't ever really feel artificial or unnecessary, but it never really succeeds at being anything than just an insider's look at a very ugly group of people. The minimalist "Dogme" style fits the film, even if it's not the prettiest or even the best way to present the material.