(Warning: This review contains spoilers, but then again, so does the first 15 minutes of the film.)
In order to really work, any film that hinges on the “is this really happening or is it all in his head” device needs to make either reading of the plot plausible, right up until a certain point near the end where the truth is unveiled. But the chief problem with “Everything Will Be Fine,” the latest film from Danish writer/director Christoffer Boe is that it fails to walk that tightrope, and the answer is telegraphed right from the beginning – so for the majority of the film’s running time, we’re watching a man’s hallucination, which is only slightly more interesting than hearing about somebody else’s dream.
More worryingly, in a movie that comes off as exploitative rather than provocative, the film tries to borrow topical interest by using photos of the torture of captives by the military as one of its chief macguffins. As with other potentially interesting themes, such as religious fundamentalism and the price of artistic obsession, this area is relegated to the status of plot device and left largely unexplored.
As time goes on, even the director seems to lose faith in the paranoid conspiracy elements of his plot. With the long-foreseen “revelation” that most of what we’ve been watching has been the product of a disturbed imagination, the film morphs into an attempt at a character study — but with all the plot twists and supposedly enigmatic narrative tricks, characterisation has been overlooked so it’s hard to really care about the protagonist.
On the plus side, it showcases a handful of performances that rise above the material and much of it looks beautiful in a chilly Scandinavian way, but this stylish veneer can’t conceal the emptiness in its heart.
By Jessica Kiang.
