To me, this movie is perfection.

A Masterpiece!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Learning that the BBC has recently shown the rare movie An Angel on My Shoulder,I went searching for the title on BBC iPlayer,and stumbled upon a tough-sounding Drama which had strong reviews on IMDb,which led to me going on a search for a better world.The plot:Working at a refugee hospital in Sudan,the gap between his work time in Sudan and his home time in Denmark leads to Anton's marriage to Marianne being strained to the point that they are starting to think of getting a divorce,which their oldest son Elias feels the full impact of.Moving to Demark with his dad Claus after his mum has died from cancer, Christian starts his first day at Elias's school.Seeing Elias get bullied, Christian decides to stand up for him,and fight back. Taught by their families to forgive,Elias and Christian decide to not tell their parents that they have decided to go down a path of revenge.View on the film:Keeping the camera at Elias and Christian's level,co-writer/(along with Anders Thomas Jensen and Per Nielsen) director Susanne Bier and cinematographer Morten Søborg cast a cloud of grief and loss of hope over the title,with brilliantly held two shots of Christian and Elias hitting the title with a tense atmosphere of impending despair. Treating the outbreak of violence very seriously, Bier hits the scenes with a raw force,which smartly keeps the issues Elias and Christian are facing at home as a just under the surface subtext.Looking into the eyes of the parents,the screenplay by Jensen/ Bier and Nielsen paint a brilliant,emotionally complex picture of each family. Clearly showing their love for Elias and Christian,the writers dissect each of the internal debates that they are facing,from Claus facing the private sorrow from the death of his wife,to Anton standing up against the injustice in Sudan,but finding it impossible to stop the marriage slipping out of his hands.Pushed onto the school pavement, William Jøhnk Nielsen and Markus Rygaard both give extraordinary performances as Elias and Christian,whose friendship Nielsen and Rygaard give a rough round the edges vibe,and also an excellent skill in feeding the deep psychological "issues" they are both dealing with into their uncomfortable outbreaks out violence. Fighting against what he believes is wrong, Mikael Persbrandt gives a terrific performance as Anton,whose attempt to stand on the correct moral ground Persbrandt perfectly captures,whilst Ulrich Thomsen gives a quiet,powerful performance as Claus trying to stay strong for his son,as they go in search of a better world.

"In a Better World" or "'Hævnen" is directed by the Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier and written by Anders Thomas Jensen. This Academy Award winning Danish film is a profound character study film, and it delivers an important message of revenge as a painful and worthless behavior which can cause you and your loved one pain.The film opens somewhere in Africa which a lot resembles Sudan. In the opening scene, Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) is working physically and mentally challenging job as a doctor in a refugee camp. Most of Anton's patients are pregnant women whose bellies are being cut open by sadist warlords. The brief introduction of Anton's character working in the middle of inhumane acts, and brutal situations gives sarcastic meaning of the film's English title "In a Better World". Anton balances his time commutes back and forth between Africa and his home country Denmark, where he creates a bond with his two sons while trying to save his marriage with his semi-estranged wife who is also a doctor in a local hospital. Their eldest son, a 12-years-old Elias (Markus Rygaard) gets easily picked on by the bullies at school because of his vulnerability, and largely because of his Swedish background. In the class, Elias meets with a new student Christian (William Jøhnk Juels Nielsen). The two teenage boys become good friends after Christian takes a revenge on a main bully (who is twice his size) for all of his injustice assaults towards Elias in a bloody attack. The film's Danish title 'Hævnen' translates into English as 'Revenge' which resembles Christian's 'an eye for an eye' attitude.Elias and Christian share unhappy childhood. Elias doesn't want his parents to get divorced as he loves his father very much while Christian acts rebellious manners towards his dad followed by the recent death of his mother. When Anton is back in his country, he usually takes his boys and Christian out with him. One day, Anton was forced to involve a small argument with a rude local mechanic and he was irrelevantly punched, but Anton could easily forgive him considering that guy as a jerk. Christian witnessed the entire incident; there is only one thing in his mind: revenge. Despite the fact that this Oscar winning film focuses only on two fathers and their sons, it speaks about the real social issues, moral dimensions of each individual, and psyche of people conditioned by a series of incidents they've encountered. In this film, revenge is viewed as a negative excessive behavior which can harm yourself than taking pride in it. Anton believes in forgiving, and teaches his sons not to be violent. Yet, he finds himself caught in an incident to use an act of cruelty to a man in refugee camp in Africa in the form of a revenge. Director Susanne Bier's intense drama is well deserved for 2010's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. "In a Better World" features powerful moments, and impressive camera-work from cinematographer Morten Søborg for all the scenes both in Denmark and Africa. The essence of cinema is editing, and the editing in this film is superb. Ms. Bier intelligently delivers an exciting storytelling with the use of brilliant spatial and temporal editing to create a suspenseful meaning. All the actors including the child actors give incredible performances tied up with intense emotions until the end. I was amazed by how natural the child actors are to deliver such complex characters who are dealing with the dilemma of good and evil. No doubt this film's motive of forgiveness appears to be an extraordinary story that seems to appeal to the academy voters.

HEAVEN (aka A BETTER WORLD) is a Danish film about revenge, and falls into that curious Scandi genre of films about people trying to restrain their inner violence as they live in non-violent societies (facing you inner- Viking, one might say). The film swings between two middle class Danish families. In Denmark the families face adult and child bullies, whilst in Africa the husband/father of one family is a doctor on a humanitarian mission which is challenged by a local militia. The former story is entirely predictable, and anyone who sees the kids looking at the tall, unguarded building in the center of the town knows it will end up with an attempted suicide by rooftop. The latter story is more interesting but is let down by silly Western thinking; it ends (spoilers) with the doctor letting his patients murder the unarmed militia leader. But surely if they did so, the militia would simply kill the patients? Instead of confronting the consequence's of the doctor's decision the film cuts away. It's disappointing and juvenile.

Winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, In a Better World (also known as Hævnen) is a Danish drama that tells the story of two separate families, which is going through a tough time and focuses on the budding friendship between their two kids, who are equally troubled by what's brewing inside their homes.Co-written & directed by Susanne Bier, In a Better World explores the themes of revenge & forgiveness and is crafted with care & dedication. The screenplay handles the dynamics of the two families quite well, sensibly portraying their separate conflicts but it's the friendship between the two kids and how it's handled that makes up for the picture's best part.The technical aspects are nicely executed with its camera capturing every location in fine detail while also making commendable use of its warm colour palette, Editing unfolds the story at an unhurried pace thus letting each moment run its course, and the performances by its entire cast is top-notch for every actor has done complete justice to his or her given role.On an overall scale, In a Better World is an intriguing study of friendship, isolation, domestic troubles, vengeance & its consequences and covers the moral issues faced by people of all ages at some point in their lives. Brilliantly directed, elegantly written, sincerely performed, wonderfully photographed, calmly paced, In a Better World makes a strong statement about the complexities of human emotions, is powerfully moving at places, and definitely deserves a wider audience. Thoroughly recommended.