Adams æbler (Adam's Apples) - (2005)
Directed by Anders Thomas Jensen
Written by Anders Thomas Jensen
Starring Ulrich Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen, Paprika Steen
& Ole Thestrup
Anders Thomas Jensen has found another fan in me. I haven't been conspicuously aware of him until now, but I have seen a few of the films he's written the screenplay for -
Brothers (the Danish version),
The Duchess and and Oscar-winning
In a Better World being three. I'd never seen a film he's directed until now, but it won't be long until I've seen all of them because
Adams Æbler (
Adam's Apples) agreed with me, and I'm eyeing up several more Jensen films that look as fulfilling, light-hearted and measured. Of course, this film has the great benefit of having an outrageously great pairing cast-wise - Ulrich Thomsen and Mads Mikkelsen, who are at the top of their game - giving
Adam's Apples enough dark gravity to make it's riotous humour all the more spot-on. Jensen engages topics in a comedic way that some other writers and directors would be too afraid to go near.
Adam Pedersen (Ulrich Thomsen) is a Neo-Nazi - a skinhead just released from prison. The extremely taciturn and angry man comes into contact with priest Ivan Fjeldsted (Mads Mikkelsen) who runs the release program which is compulsory for him, and immediately dislikes him. Ivan is good-natured, optimistic, but also somewhat blinded by his own faith - in which he often tends to slip into denial. Living with them is Gunnar (Nicolas Bro) - a kleptomaniac and rapist - along with Khalid (Ali Kazim) - a man with a vendetta against a specific oil corporation. Adam, trying to be glib and dismissive, sets himself the task of baking an apple pie for his release goal, but Ivan takes him up on this, and thus begins the trials and tribulations the pair have in looking after the church's beleaguered apple tree. Inwardly though, Adam has really set himself the goal of breaking Ivan's spirit, and getting him to see the world as it truly is. Through this, he discovers that Ivan had been raped by his father as a child, has lost his wife to suicide, has a disabled son and has been diagnosed with a brain tumour. If he does acknowledge the unfairness of his unfortunate life, he might lose the will to go on.
It takes a lot of talent to turn the jet black plot of
Adam's Apples into a funny and likeable hour and a half of fun, but that's what Anders Thomas Jensen has done. Ulrich Thomsen required the same level of talent, for he has very few lines to speak over the first two-thirds of the film - he communicates everything through his facial expressions, and if just a look could be considered swearing then that's what Thomsen does here. His character's scorn and hostility towards Ivan is palpable, as is his general apathy towards life in general. He loathes what Ivan represents, abhors Khalid, and quickly comes into conflict with Gunnar when the latter repeatedly tries to steal his phone and wallet. This is all compounded when Adam witnesses how Ivan operates - completely detached from reality, to the point where Ivan's advice is questionable. Being good-hearted towards mankind is something Adam is completely disinterested in, but he still has a sense of what is fair, right and reasonable. Adam and Ivan are forced into close proximity with each other, and change becomes irrevocable.
Mads Mikkelsen, as always, is also fantastic. Not only does
Adam's Apples manage to navigate dark and murky waters in a comedic way, but it does so with two straight leads playing off of each other. Mikkelsen's Ivan seems thoughtful and considered, but as the film progresses you begin to notice just how damaged and fragile this man really is. Anything psychologically troubling causes the frail Ivan to begin bleeding from his ear - the physical damage mirroring the psychological, but he has an incredible ability to see what he wants to see - to the point where he sees his severely incapacitated son as completely able and functional. He has an ingrained habit of seeing anything troublesome as "rude" before he makes the switch in his mind and sees the good side in the absolute worst situations. Mikkelson lets the character's frailty, inner uncertainty and delicate nature really come to the fore as the film progresses, and his ability to "turn the other cheek" so to speak leads to very funny situations - a favourite of mine being how casually he announces that he's going to the emergency department when he's been savagely beaten by Adam (even considering to make a stop for Gunner along the way.)
Connected to the film, often in a direct way, is the Book of Job in the Old Testament, which tells the tale of a man who has all the benefits and advantages of life - wealth, health and a large family. Satan tries to tell God that Job is a man who worships God because he has all of this, and that if he didn't, he wouldn't be as pious as he is. So Job is then tested when all of these things are taken away. In the film Adam constantly comes across the book of Job, and when this happens so often that he can't ignore it any more he uses the text to dishearten and ridicule Ivan - telling him that his oft-announced certainty that the Devil is testing him is wrong, and that Ivan's God is the one who has heaped all of this misery upon him. Although it's directly referenced here, in a larger context the film as a whole can be seen as a version of this Bible tale - Ivan has three friends of dubious nature, just as Job had, one who criticizes him just as Adam does in this. It's an interesting little parallel that adds to the film's meaning.
I wouldn't normally notice the cinematography in a comedy such as this, but have to admit that director of photography Sebastian Blenkov has captured the church and it's environs in a very bright and pleasing way, and really gives us a close look at Mikkelsen and Thomsen's expressive faces for full effect. Anders Thomas Jensen regular Jeppe Kaas has composed a pleasing score as well. The film has, in addition, joined a very august selection of my favourite films by winning the 2007 Silver Scream Award at the Amsterdam Film Festival, which for me has a near 100% record of electing films I completely love. It aims for more than just comedy, with a scene that is almost transformative in it's pathos for Adam - witnessing an old man who participated in the Holocaust painfully experiencing a final moment of deep regret. Adam's first appreciation of this man is one of respect - someone who actually lived Adam's ideology - but he doesn't see this reflected back to him as the man dies. Instead, there can only be shame, and a sense that if there is a heaven, this man may not have been able to atone for such grievous crimes.
Films like
Adam's Apples give me a lot of optimism, for if there are titles this good that I've never heard of then who knows how many films and filmmakers are out there awaiting personal discovery. A never-ending series of them it seems. I'm so impressed with this unusual and sharply funny vehicle which looks at the very worst in humans and human nature only to transform itself into something very life-affirming, and accepting. It manages to successfully make comedy from some subjects that you'd think would be impossible to translate that way. No matter how dark, you name it and this film makes it seem funny and absurd. That takes real skill from everyone involved, but seems to be something Anders Thomas Jensen has a real knack for. If anyone told me they were making a film in which disabled children, a murdered cat, Neo-Nazism, rape and alcoholism feature, and that it's going to be a comedy, I'd try to stop them - but obviously in this case I would have been wrong. Sometimes you simply must have faith in your own talents, and this man really does - boldly and fearlessly crossing the bounds of what's considered correct and coming back with
Adams Æbler - a comedic and audacious Danish success.