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‘Beginnings’ Review: Trine Dyrholm is Superb in an Emotionally Acute Portrait of a Divorce Disrupted
A dying marriage is further complicated when one partner experiences a severe stroke in Jeanette Nordahl's involving, beautifully acted 'Beginnings.'
Two familiar premises for a personal crisis drama — the unraveling of a marriage, and recovery from a medical calamity — combine to raw and even surprising effect in Jeanette Nordahl ‘s accomplished sophomore feature “ Beginnings.” Arriving five years after her debut “Wildland,” a somber criminal drama quickened by an electric Sidse Babett Knudsen performance, the Danish writer-director’s follow-up once more uses confidently reserved craft and straightforward storytelling to place the spotlight on a gutsy big-name star turn, or two: this time from Trine Dyrholm and David Dencik, both without vanity and emotionally on edge as a long-married couple unsure how or when to end their relationship for good. Nordahl and co-writer Rasmus Birch mostly keep the stakes high and the drama involving without sinking into histrionics; the resulting film, recently premiered in Berlin’s Panorama strand, is relatable and broadly distributable arthouse fare. The opening scenes establish the bustling routine and type-A status of Ane (Dyrholm), a field-leading marine biologist and university professor with a new research project on the go, though she still makes time to play supermom to daughters Clara (impressive newcomer Björk Storm), a prodigious teen gymnast, and fanciful 10-year-old Marie (Luna Fuglsang Svelmøe).
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