"AFTER THE WEDDING" ("Efter brylluppet," 2006, in Danish with English subtitles) ..... A ... This is one of the most fascinatingly complex movies that I have ever seen. It is a brilliant, almost poetic, examination of ambition, manipulation, and, ultimately, sacrificing a dream for the greater good. Susanne Bier has directed this movie after writing the story with the help of Anders Thomas Jensen, and her deft touch here is nothing short of masterful.

The story seems simple enough on its surface, but that facade drops almost immediately at a wedding that takes place at a country estate when all of the characters have been introduced and the new dynamics start to unfold. This movie toys with us from the standpoint that every single expectation that we might have for the characters and the story line in this movie come to naught. Though not a noir mystery in the classical sense, there are twists and turns to this story that will fascinate and intrigue you.

This Danish entry for an Oscar for the 2006 Best Foreign Language Film is every bit as worthy as its competitors, "Black Book" from Holland and "The Lives of Others" from Germany (which eventually won). It has been a real treat to see all of these highly regarded films, and I enthusiastically recommend every one of them for your viewing pleasure.

Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen) is a Danish foreign aid worker who has spent years toiling at an orphanage in India. He is called home, much against his will, to apply for funding from Jørgen Hannson (Rolf Lassgård), a billionaire real estate tycoon. At their meeting, the tycoon promises the necessary funding, but he needs further time to craft the proper proposal.

As the meeting had been held on a Friday, he invites the aid worker to the weekend marriage of his daughter at his country estate. Coming from the immense poverty in India, Jacob is placed in a position of extreme discomfort, first in his luxurious hotel room and then later when he surveys the opulence and the wealth on display at this billionaire's country estate.

Mads Mikkelsen recently came to prominence as the villain in the 2006 James Bond movie, "Casino Royale." He seems to be a tightly wound, closed in, kind of personality, so we are quick to leap to the assumption that something will trigger him to an act of violence or revenge.

Likewise, Jørgen Hannson, the billionaire real estate tycoon, turns out to be a proud man who delights in manipulating others, even those in his own family. He moves them around like each one is a chess piece on some board in his mind, all for purposes only known to himself. We are prepared to hate him and consider him a worthy villain to Jacob, who only rises in our esteem after we see his dedication to the children in his orphanage.

In between these two apparent adversaries is Jørgen's beautiful and much younger wife, Helene (Sidse Babett Knudsen). It is instantly telegraphed that there has been a connection between Jacob and Helene at some distant point in the past, but we don't know what that is until a bombshell is dropped at the wedding of the Hannson daughter. The lovely and fetching Anna Hannson (Stine Fischer Christensen) is marrying Christian (Christian Tafdrup), a young man who is an employee at her father's firm.

The camera lingers over the heads of the many animals which have been hunted and shot and are now mounted on the walls of the estate. With their unblinking glass eyes, they seem to be morbidly looking down upon the human animals who pass beneath them. We are forced to wonder who it will be who will be shot and mounted on the wall like one of them. This is a terrific movie. 120 minutes and rated R for some language and a scene of sexuality.