REVIEW - LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED

Like all good comedies, Love Is All You Need (clumsily re-titled away from an equally clumsy Danish title) has its cake and eats it. It is silly, sweet, a little mawkish, and very winning. As utterly every narrative development is signposted well in advance, and shot in the most derivative style conceivable by Susanne Bier, what propels it and what holds our attention is the strong sense of humour, whether it's brassy and caustic verbal humour or just a gentle light-heartedness that buoys the less punchy moments. Bier's approach is actually quite astute - she gives the humour room to take root and blossom thenceforth; if the key to good written comedy is to honour it, follow it, always keep one's directorial hand just out of view, Bier does a splendid job. Indeed, her most noticeable touches, like the dazzling bright colours infused in the mise-en-scene, are rather pleasant bedfellows with the story and the screenplay by Anders Thomas Jensen. An able cast (this is a Danish movie, so no less is expected) handles the light but not quite frothy tone well, creating realistic characters whose outward demeanours may be trite and predictable, but only in service of the comedic demands of the film. In fact, every coincidence or obvious change of direction in the plot can be justified by the fact that they too service the comedy that is the crux of Love Is All You Need. Trine Dyrholm is apparently effortless in the lead, and a riveting presence, and I could watch a dozen more films with Dryholm in this role, even if this one began to dry up towards its end. But I cannot find the badness (or the goodness) in my heart to dislike a film in which a husband leaves his wife because she walked in on him fucking some slut from work because he thought she was at chemo. Eat that cake!