Director: Lars von Trier Writer: Lars von Trier Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Music: Kristian Eidnes Andersen Cast: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Disc company: The Criterion Collection Video: 1080p 2.35:1 Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1 English
Subtitles: English Disc: BD50 (Region A) Release Date: 11/09/2010 Product link: Amazon.com
Note: This Blu-ray review is an update of an article I originally published in 2009, and in which I discuss the film at greater length and in more detail than is the norm. As such I feel it pertinent to warn that this article may contain SPOILERS. If you’re inclined to be bothered by such things I recommend seeing the film before proceeding further.
An unnamed couple (Dafoe and Gainsbourg) lose their child in a horrific accident (falling from their apartment window as He and She make love) and She, stricken with crippling grief, is hospitalized. He, a therapist, disagrees with her doctor’s diagnosis of her grief as atypical and, convinced he knows his wife better than anyone, has her released into his care.
She is forced to flush her medication and confront her grief head-on, culminating in He taking her on a therapeutic trip to Eden – a cabin in the woods in which She and her son had spent the previous summer . . .
