This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I was not sure about watching this film, but like usual ignoring the critics made me realise how much it was underrated. From the director of the Oscar winning film 'In a Better World'. After that great feat which ignited her international career, quite did not go well accordingly, including one project in the Hollywood. So she went back and made this Danish thriller-drama. Very strongly written screenplay, but feels it has flaws and then on its progress, they had all patched so brilliantly to make you think yourself you had got so wrong. It was not based on any book, but looks it could make one fine.This is a story of 'the good' and 'the bad', and when 'the good' turns very bad, what would 'the bad' decide to do. A decent middle class couple who can do anything for their newborn child and another couple who are drug addicts whose newborn was completely neglected. When the tragedy strike in one of these families, the nightmare begins for another. A series of events follows where they all go for an extra mile to get a second chance. So see it to believe what people are capable when they are in the desperate situation.Like the title and its tagline indicating, the narration carefully and intensely built the plot in the first act. That is the part you have to be watchful to learn the characters which is obviously a bit slower than the rest of the film. In the second half where it all turns to one direction to move on with a couple of quick twists. Totally unpredictable stuffs, because they were silly or maybe kind of familiar and you won't expect that to happen, but it does. I think that was the very clever, beside the powerful performance had brought a good balance between the pace and the contents of the film."People look different when they are dead. That's just how it is."It did not win any big awards internationally or contended for the Oscars, but still the film is worth a watch. No matter what the critics say, this is one of the best films of the year. Like I said the story might look stupid in the paper, but the filmmakers stunning presented it on the screen. I won't be surprised if an improvised versions were made in other languages including Hollywood. After those fine progress it made in the middle part, the conclusion was somewhat ordinary. It suddenly skips a couple of years forward with one final short scene before the credits roll up which will make us feel good. That was a nice way to end after the shock the narration had given to us.From the actors, Nikolaj Coaster-Wakdau was the screenpace ruler and did not fail to deliver. If this film is winning an award means he should be on the top of the list from the film followed by the direction and screenplay. In one of the film posters he just looks alike the current James Bond, the film was a lot better than the impression the posters give. His co-stars were not bad either.There is sentiment in it, but not that effective, so the lack of melodrama is the big drawback. A theme like this should have bettered that part in order to make the overall film even better. Because the characters do not count when the subject it dealing with was has much higher priority. So the viewers always would be busy looking for what might happen to the story rather thinking its characters all the time. And that is because of the neutrality. Like I said before when 'the good' is as bad as 'the bad' it become, then everything end in an equal position and you might stop backing anyone particularly. There are many films like this, but this is kind of refreshing and very realistic. Definitely, I must end my review recommending it. So I hope you all enjoy it as I did.8/10

Suzanne Bier's A Second Chance is an emotionally complex expansion of the buddy cop genre. Buried in the rich psychological texture of the four main characters remains the classic whodunit. Who killed baby Alexander?Hero Andreas is a unique film cop because he's so open to his emotions, both as he caresses his lovely wife Anna and as he's dedicated instantly to the infants, the psychotic druggie's beshat waif as well as the cop's own helpless son. This cop dotes on babies. Andreas is a man strong enough to show his feelings, which of course prompts the irate Tristan to call him "faggot."It's hard to recall another film hero, especially in the crime genre, who shows such tenderness to babies and women. This softness leads Andreas over the line into his own irrational action: swapping his dead son for the druggies' neglected one, to give that kid a second chance.Andreas's motive is not entirely generous. Through that swap, his hysterical wife Anna would also get a second chance to be a parent, as he will as a father. Instead she gets a second chance to lose control. The new baby doesn't keep her from the suicide she threatened if Andreas were to call the ambulance to take away their Alexander, however dead. At risk of sounding clinical, both Anna and Tristan's Sanne have forms of postpartum depression. Sanne's life is further complicated by Tristan's violence that forces her to neglect their son Sofus. Paradoxically, the downtrodden Sanne proves a better mother than the rich and classy Anna. In a brief scene Anna's mother reveals an intense sunken rage at her husband's rejection of their daughter, presumably for marrying down to a cop. One central theme is the power of male authority and its maddening effect on women. With his remarkable sensitivity, though, Andreas experiences a grief and disorientation as profound as his wife's. Hence his plan to swap babies, fine for Sofus's second chance but an unwarranted cruelty to Sanne.Simon, Andreas's partner in crime-fighting, is typically his opposite. The bad cop and the good cup switch roles. When Andreas is initially stable and ethical, Simon is a basket case, drunken and belligerent, living a bum's life since his wife left him, taking their son. As Andreas goes to pieces Simon recovers his character, self-respect and discipline. He even tidies his flat. He deduces Andreas's secret and leads him to return Sofus to Sanne, confess his crime, take his punishment and start a new life, however smaller. The drunken Simon and maddened Andreas prove as hysterical as the women. The happy ending completes the theme of justice and proper compassion. We share the busted Andreas's satisfaction when he glimpses a clearly rehabilitated, stable Sanne and meets the bright young Sofus. The once helpless infant has a hammer now and his mom is buying screws. Andreas had to abandon his plan and his career to give Sofus and Sanne a true second chance.This buddy cop film is less about law and order than the pain of emotional commitment and vulnerability.

This is one of those films that is very hard to give a synopsis about without doing a major plot reveal. Suffice to say it is about the choices we can make when faced with the 'unthinkable'. It is about how we are able to not only blur the line between right and wrong but also move it completely whilst still, self deceivingly, believing that you are still the good guy.It is about a married couple Anna and her policeman husband Andreas and how they deal with their own tragedy. This is from director Susanne Bier who brought us 'In a Better World' and 'After the wedding'. She has a keen eye for direction and uses dramatic timing to ramp up the tension but also perfectly timed plot reveals – and there are a fair few here.It is superbly acted with a striking performance from Maria Bonnevie as the new mum and wife. This is a film that trades on the reveals and twists and as such may not be one to see over again; but it is still powerful enough to recommend and indeed warrant at least one good viewing.

Danish screenwriter, producer and director Susanne Bier's fourteenth feature film which she co-wrote with Danish screenwriter and director Anders Thomas Jensen after their story, premiered in the Special Presentations section at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival in 2014, was screened in the Official Selection section at the 62nd San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2014, was shot on locations in Denmark and is a Denmark-Sweden co-production which was produced by producer Sisse Graum Jørgensen. It tells the story about a police officer named Andreas Juhl.Distinctly and subtly directed by Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated interchangeably from the main characters' viewpoints, draws an immediately gripping portrayal of a police case and the parallel lives of those involved. While notable for its atmospheric milieu depictions and reverent cinematography by cinematographer Michael Keith Snyman, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about Scandinavian values and conventional views on fatherhood and motherhood, depicts multiple perspicacious studies of character and contains a great and timely score by composer Johan Söderqvist.This dramatically realistic and increasingly heartrending character piece which is set in Denmark in the 21st century and where trauma instigates heartfelt actions which surpasses moral boundaries and a father and husband is brutally confronted with circumstantial events which provokes intuitive reactions, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, rhythmic continuity, self-explanatory scenes of a human being named Sofus and the invaluable acting performances by Danish actors Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Norwegian actress Maria Bonnevie. A radically humane narrative feature.