@Filmhouse, Edinburgh Fri 24 Jun and @Cineworld, Edinburgh Sat 25 June 2016
As part of Edinburgh International Film Festival
Thomas Vinterberg/ Denmark/ 2016/ 111 mins
‘You lose each other in a big house’.
This is a line that proves prescient in The Commune, the new film from Thomas Vinterberg, returning to his native Denmark after helming the handsome adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd last year. Drawing from his own experience of growing up in a commune in the 70s and 80s, the story concerns middle-aged couple Erik and Anna, and his inheritance of a large house from his late father.
Worried about the expense, she proposes that they establish a commune and invite friends to live with them. Erik is initially reluctant, but with the assistance of their teenage daughter Freja, Anna convinces him to give it a go. They assemble a rag-tag bunch of housemates and the experiment commences, with predictably catastrophic results.
The most obvious comparison to make would be with Lukas Moodysson’s Together, which covers similar ground, although whereas the collective in the earlier film was established along class lines, the rationale for Vinterberg’s group are purely economic. Also, the tensions in Moodysson’s group well up from within, whereas it is Erik’s affair with pretty young student Emma that proves disastrous in their house. Indeed the housemates rub along rather well until the affair is discovered and it’s proposed that Emma move in.
As unlikely as this appears, and the film never quite rises above the suspension of disbelief required, Trine Dyrholm does enough to make it as convincing as it possibly can be. Initially appearing to be the very ideal of the liberal attitude communal living would imply, she welcomes Emma into her home (in scenes of exquisite awkwardness), yet the strain soon begin to show and her subsequent breakdown is expertly played.
Although always enjoyable, The Commune feels a little cheaply manipulative, which earlier films like Festen and The Hunt could never have been accused of being. This is chiefly down to the six year-old son of one of the couples who live in the house, and his heart condition. He appears to exist purely for an emotional punch that was perhaps lacking in the main story. Indeed, once Emma is introduced the rest of the housemates are sidelined and the film becomes less interesting. The supporting characters were sketchily drawn in the first place, but their interactions are amusing and nicely played – squabbles over booze not accounted for, rent not paid, and one inhabitant’s propensity for burning any possessions left lying around. It felt unusually breezy for a Vinterberg film, but the tonal shift into darker territory is slightly abrupt and jarring.
It isn’t a failure, but The Commune will surely be considered a minor Vinterberg; although one can see that it would have a mainstream appeal that some of his other work doesn’t.
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