David O'ConnellJust Another Love Story
April 3rd 2010 01:36
Deadly entanglements materialise from innocent beginnings in this absorbing, though barely plausible, Danish mystery from director Ole Bornedal. Part neo-noir, part melodrama, part psychological revenge tale, Just Another Love Story (2007) bears a Sunset Blvd influence in its opening moments, with a narrator mourning his dying body in a rain-soaked street. Jonas (Anders W.Berthelsen) then reverses the reel, taking us back to a benign moment in time, a place of domestic routine and false security, before trouble came knocking at his door.
Jonas, a crime-scene photographer, lives in relative domestic bliss with a wife, Mette (Charlotte Fich) and two young children. His universe falls out of alignment however after narrowly averting a horrific freeway crash. A young woman, Julia (Rebecka Hemse) barrels past his stalling car only to collide with another. She goes into a coma before emerging with much of her recent memory erased and without 90% of her sight.
Jonas experiences mild guilt for the crash and a natural curiosity about Julia, who comes from a wealthy family. He talks his way into her hospital ward, only to be met by the waiting arms of Julia’s family who immediately assume he’s Sebastian, the recent boyfriend Julia had been travelling around Asia with. He doesn’t deny it, planning to sate his curiosity before high-tailing it out of there.
That’s easier said than done of course, and naturally Jonas becomes drawn into a web of deception under the cover of an increasingly-elaborate false identity. Seen as a saviour by Julia’s family, he can’t bring himself to unburden his secret, especially after learning through a work colleague of the apparent death of the real Sebastian. Digging a deeper hole for himself, Jonas actually finds himself attracted to the now-awoken Julia, leaving his domestic life in tatters. His wife is naturally suspicious and his children fade into the background, but when a figure from the past begins a mysterious resurrection, his alternate life is suddenly placed in jeopardy too.
Bornedal, who had a flirtation with Hollywood in the nineties when remaking his own Night Watch (1997), takes us on a compelling ride here, though much is dependant on putting aside the implausibility of the basic premise. It does require a sustained suspension of belief to buy into Jonas's slippery slope ride, but visually plenty of trickery is used to enliven proceedings. There are the requisite twists that you can predict to some extent, whilst a dark, vengeful verbal showdown late in the piece between Jonas and another character proves to be a standout set-piece, generating genuine suspense.
There are a couple of nice tongue-in-cheek moments embedded in Bornedal’s screenplay, such as Jonas’s friend telling him that any good film noir begins with a woman and a mystery as he first begins to lose traction; later, the ubiquitous narrator asks us to consider the integrity of his tale’s non-Hollywood ending before an even bleaker sting-in-the-tail rams home the point even further.
Just Another Love Story, with its irony-laced title, never ascends to any great heights of sparkling originality but it has style to burn and is still a satisfyingly twisted story of misguided obsession. The actors all provide strong performances, though Jonas’s self-induced turmoil necessarily limits the amount of sympathy we can divert his way. Are the choices we make really our own? Or is fate continually intervening on our behalf? Whatever the answer, the outcome, insists Bornedal, is often a savage one.
Jonas (Anders Berthelsen) shows his affection for Julia (Rebecka Hemse) whilst her family looks on with concern.
Just Another Love Story has been released on DVD by Madman.
Watch the trailer here.
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