Mifune

Mifune

As developed by Danish directors Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, Dogma 95's so-called "Vow Of Chastity" places restrictions on filmmakers—use only handheld cameras, real locations, and available light while avoiding superficial action (weapons, murders, etc.) and genre pieces—for the ostensible purpose of a truer, more organic cinema. Critics anxious to dismiss the movement were silenced by Vinterberg's entry, Dogma 1: The Celebration, a devastating black comedy made all the more powerful by its stripped-down, home-movie-like quality. But the Dogma tenets seem arbitrary in Dogma 3: Mifune, which follows the rules but misses the point, employing cruddy naturalism to pass off a contrived and deeply conventional story. Had Von Trier and Vinterberg thought to include the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold or estranged-autistic-brother (a la Rain Man) under "superficial action," director Søren Kragh-Jacobsen might have improvised something less predictable. On its own modest terms, however, Mifune is still a well-performed and mildly affecting provincial drama that shares Vinterberg's interest in family, if not his wit and innovation. Anders Berthelsen stars as a prototypical yuppie from Copenhagen with all the shallow marks of success: a high-paying job, a trophy wife (Sofie Gråbøl), a purring cell phone, and a luxury car. But when he gets word that his father has died, Berthelsen temporarily returns to his humble boyhood home in the country to look after his autistic brother (Jesper Asholt). The pair is joined by High Fidelity's Iben Hjejle, a big-city prostitute who answers their ad for a housekeeper, and her misanthropic younger brother, Emil Tarding. With that premise in place, Berthelsen's path to redemption becomes nakedly obvious, as do the film's pat notions of surrogate familyhood. While the Dogma shooting style and understated lead performances help scrape some of the gloss off the proceedings, Mifune brings the movement closer to Hollywood than the Danish radicals might have envisioned.

 
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