A Second Chance ** (2014, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas) – Movie Review

Director Susanne Bier and writer Anders Thomas Jensen craft an intriguing yet hopelessly far-fetched melodrama about a loving married couple (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Maria Bonnevie) who tragically lose their baby but get a surprise second chance when fate offers them an opportunity.

One of the world’s more charming and handsome human beings, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has a hard time playing a distraught, usually angry cop Andrea, who busts into a drug dealer’s home with his alcoholic partner Simon (Ulrich Thomsen) and finds a couple (Nikolaj Lie Kaas, May Andersen) maltreating their baby.

The doomy thriller atmosphere, the moral ambiguities, the good performances and a warm-hearted story are all there, and the craftsmanship is undeniable, but the result is strangely hollow and artificial. And clumsy scripting in places doesn’t help.

Take away some of the violence and strong language, and it could easily be a 1940s Hollywood B-movie melodrama. It’s such a shame that there’s just no way they make you believe this screen story could happen in the real world. If they could, this would have been a contender.

This is model May Andersen’s first acting role after Bier met her at a party and cast her as the drug dealer’s abused girlfriend Sanne. She didn’t ask Andersen to audition because she thought it would be bad but that she still would be right for the role.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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