Thursday, January 6, 2011

When a Man Comes Home

A small provincial town is buzzing with excitement: the town's most illustrious son, a world-famous opera singer, is coming home. Meanwhile, Sebastian, a kitchen boy who is as good as married, falls head over heels in love with the new maid, Maria. Their love affair, along with rumours that the opera singer and the kitchen boy are related, turns the town upside down, threatening to ruin everyone's high expectations and the opera singer's triumphant return.

Thomas Vinterberg (Director); Released in Denmark on September 14, 2007

It is summer and the town is preparing for it's 750th anniversary where the world famous opera singer Karl Kristian Schmidt (Thomas Bo Larsen) will return to his home town and perform. Everything is deeply chaotic and a brilliant, yet a little out of the ordinary, chef ( Shanti Roney ) has been brought in from abroad to prepare the best of the best meals.

In the middle of all the madness we find Sebastian ( Oliver Møller-Knauer ), working as a cook at the town hotel, and desperately trying to control his stuttering which started when his father (according to his mother) comitted suicide when he was a kid.

His love life appearantly goes well and he is marrying the beautiful Claudia ( Helene Reingaard Neumann ) but suddenly his childhood love Maria (Ronja Mannov Olesen ) shows up, with a job as a maid at the hotel, and their love immediately resurfaces. He, honest as he is, immediately confesses his infidelity to Claudia. His mother (Karen-Lise Mynster) then decides to confess that the famous opera singer Karl is really his father. Claudia kicks Sebastian out of the apartment to make him think about what he's done. At the hotel Sebastian is sent up to the unknowing opera singer's room with breakfast and has a breakdown.

Karl takes in Sebastian and decides to become his mentor and help him with his love life and get Maria who no longer wants him since Claudia has lied and told her that she and Sebastian are still getting married. Nevertheless the opera singer manages to get Sebastian and Maria invited to the dinner at the town hall, but unfortunately before that happens the opera singer get's drunk in his room and Maria, who doesn't know that she's been invited to the dinner with Sebastian or that Karl is Sebastians father, shows up to clean the room and ends up having sex with the Karl just before the dinner. At the dinner Maria confesses to Sebastian and he goes into a frenzy and beats up Karl who in the meantime has learned Sebastian is his son.

While Karl performs the concert Sebastian walks out to where he all his life thought his father comitted suicide and he is relieved of the burden of losing his father and with that, also his stutter. The next morning Sebastian with his newfound confidence decides to move to the city and goes back to Claudias apartment to get his stuff finding her already having found another man. He doesn't care much and goes to his own going-away party where he makes up with Maria who has learned the truth. Karl is on his way out of town but sees Sebastian and they have a father-son moment on the street. Karl asks Sebastian to pay him a visit and even beat him up some more if he feels like it, just as long as he does. Karl and Sebastian hug and Sebastian and Maria walks joyfully down the road together.