Speak No Evil is an unnerving and unpleasant experience, particularly if you're middle class danish person like me.
This movie was written for me and my friends, danish middle class people, living sheltered, materially comfortable lives in one of the safest societies in the world.
And in this entitled boredom, there is the middle class danish man Bjørn, who longs to be wild and free, while his wife seems much more at ease, running the show, arranging for elaborate couple's dinners and planning the minutiae.
She is a sometimes vegetarian (for the environment), he dreams of adventure, but ends up settling for expensive bottles of red wine. Such is the life of many middle class couple of Denmark.
The problem of course, with living such a sheltered lifestyle is that you might come to believe that the world is as nice and predictable as your own life.
It's not.
And that's what our danish couple discovers in this movie. There is evil in this world. Real dark and menacing. That will lie and hurt and kill you.
And they will hurt your child and you will let them, because you live in a spoiled fantasy world of middle class Denmark.
Bjørn and Louise can not recognise it when it stares them in the face. Quick to make excuses, at least Bjørn, they do not see narcissism and psychopathy for what it is.
I grew up as a victim of narcissistic abuse and from the first insincere flattery from Patrick, I knew he was bad news. It's called "love bombing" and it's something narcissists and psychopats do. This film was unnerving for me, because I lived through all those abusive methods.
Louise, trusting her feelings, does sense that something is wrong, but danish modern man Bjørn is oblivious, a weak, emasculated man, that during the movie, fails completely in his male role of protector of his family.
In a most damning scene, Bjørn is easily pacified by a few punches to the face, nothing more, no weapons, no threats, just simple painful, but not deadly violence.
It says it all. Bjørn is a failure as primal man. Unable to sense danger, unable to protect, unable to even put up a fight.
And this is it. That's the indictment of danish man, that Christian Tafdrup wants to make.
What is a man, a danish middle class man, with all his wine and his clever remarks and ability to sit through a couple's dinner?
Easy prey for evil.
This movie was written for me and my friends, danish middle class people, living sheltered, materially comfortable lives in one of the safest societies in the world.
And in this entitled boredom, there is the middle class danish man Bjørn, who longs to be wild and free, while his wife seems much more at ease, running the show, arranging for elaborate couple's dinners and planning the minutiae.
She is a sometimes vegetarian (for the environment), he dreams of adventure, but ends up settling for expensive bottles of red wine. Such is the life of many middle class couple of Denmark.
The problem of course, with living such a sheltered lifestyle is that you might come to believe that the world is as nice and predictable as your own life.
It's not.
And that's what our danish couple discovers in this movie. There is evil in this world. Real dark and menacing. That will lie and hurt and kill you.
And they will hurt your child and you will let them, because you live in a spoiled fantasy world of middle class Denmark.
Bjørn and Louise can not recognise it when it stares them in the face. Quick to make excuses, at least Bjørn, they do not see narcissism and psychopathy for what it is.
I grew up as a victim of narcissistic abuse and from the first insincere flattery from Patrick, I knew he was bad news. It's called "love bombing" and it's something narcissists and psychopats do. This film was unnerving for me, because I lived through all those abusive methods.
Louise, trusting her feelings, does sense that something is wrong, but danish modern man Bjørn is oblivious, a weak, emasculated man, that during the movie, fails completely in his male role of protector of his family.
In a most damning scene, Bjørn is easily pacified by a few punches to the face, nothing more, no weapons, no threats, just simple painful, but not deadly violence.
It says it all. Bjørn is a failure as primal man. Unable to sense danger, unable to protect, unable to even put up a fight.
And this is it. That's the indictment of danish man, that Christian Tafdrup wants to make.
What is a man, a danish middle class man, with all his wine and his clever remarks and ability to sit through a couple's dinner?
Easy prey for evil.