Day twelve: Adam's Apples (March, 21)

Faith is a not a granted business.

Adam's Apples (from the original title Adams Aebler), directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, goes around this subject in his 2005 Danish movie. The official genre is comedy, but we should not expect a light time with this story about good, evil and humanity.

The humour is there, but is subtle sometimes, almost hysterical in others... dark, insurgent. We are not even able to deceive ourselves with the comedy aspects at the beggining: it's clear from the first moment that those characters, that seems purely stupid, have a lot of depth and there's more to come in this tale about faith, and other things that surround being alive in this mad world.

Faith, specially when in the religous sphere, seems like a given thing. Like a thunderbolt in the head, a miraculous insight. Sure, there are amazing tales about these miracles. But Adam's Apples is not one of them. It is also an incredible tale, but about how faith is built from adversity and pain and loss and so many unfortunate events as a person can handle. 

My faith in life comes from both, I guess. For some miracles I'm thankful. But mostly the difficult times increased my faith in life, in love and in humanity even  it I lose it in  many everyday moments. 

My dearest friend Rodrigo, and one that use to restore my faith in life constantly, told me about this movie when we're talking about how good actor Mads Mikkelsen is. Two of my favorite movies are with him: After the Wedding (2006), that called my attention to the Danish director Susanne Bier, and The Hunt (2012). It's curious how Mikkelsen usually plays the surreally good guy in the nordic productions (with a few exceptions), but is mostly cast as a vilain in Hollywood - two 007 movies and the TV show Hannibal are some examples. But in whichever production he is, I try to check over his perfomance, always a good surprise, as it was in Adam's Apples. 

Adam's Apples (Adams Aebler). Directed by Anders Thomas

 Jensen.With: Urrich Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen, Nicolas Bro. 

Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen. Denmark/Germany, 

2005, 94 min., Dolby SR, Color (DVD). 

PS: Fragments: Now You See Me (2013), a movie that I still have to see from the beggining.