Breaking the Waves

This outstanding film is an overwhelming cinema experience which sweeps you away on all levels. A highly emotional and satisfying film experience. Emily Watson is quite extraordinary, displaying vulnerability yet immense inner strength in the role. ... Full Review

Lars Von Trier's deservedly acclaimed drama, Breaking the Waves , about a Scottish naif (Emily Watson) who goes to great, sometimes degrading lengths to save the life of her paralyzed husband (Stellan Skarsgard) is a different experience on video. ... Full Review

The title is misleading, since The Kingdom is barely mentioned; von Trier talks substantially more about Breaking the Waves and The Idiots. He goes on to talk about the great Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's influence on his work: "I plagiarized," he says bluntly, presumably referring to the strong thematic similarities between Breaking the Waves and Dreyer's Ordet. ... Full Review

A fearless filmmaking exercise from start to finish, "A Hole in My Heart" is exceedingly kinetic yet always in control of its own shock value. "A Hole in My Heart" is a brave, shocking cinematic experience intimately filmed in a cramped Swedish apartment and following a total of four characters through acts of physical degradation, sensual perversity and emotional isolation. ... Full Review

Hand-held camerawork, which can seem like an affectation, is used here to remarkable effect. While most films about dysfunctional relationships fit neatly into a problem picture box, this wrenching but uplifting film finds its own way with energy and aplomb. ... Full Review

Most of the rave reviews that have accompanied the release of "Breaking the Waves" have little to do with the film itself (though it does have some powerful moments), concentrating instead on the superb central performance by newcomer Emily Watson. Although the film did win the Grand Jury Prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival. ... Full Review

True art is a journey to somewhere you've never been, and there has never been a movie quite like BREAKING THE WAVES (October, R). More than anything, though, Breaking the Waves is an experience, a movie that invites you, with moment-to-moment intimacy, to share the psychic space of its characters, to enter a world in which love, madness, sex, physical paralysis, glitter rock, and the presence of God flow in and out of each other. ... Full Review

Wednesday November 20, 1996 "Breaking the Waves" is skillful and provocative filmmaking sent on a fool's errand. But where "Ordet's" story of a woman brought back from the dead by the strength of pure belief gains power due to the simplicity and austerity with which its told, "Breaking the Waves' " similar story feels tarted up and even misogynistic due to its peculiar focus on sexual humiliation as the path to saintliness. ... Full Review

And, despite a slightly disappointing conclusion, this movie still rates among the best of the year. U.S. Distributor: October Films According to writer/director Lars von Trier, Breaking the Waves is "a simple love story", but "simple" hardly begins to describe this deeply disturbing, multi-layered drama. ... Full Review

But an added irony comes in the form of The Boss of It All , which is not only Von Trier's gentlest film, but a coolly funny one to boot. You're only one film away from a bright new career as a human being. ... Full Review