A Beautiful Life

This is the story of a Danish fisherman turned reluctant pop star. Elliot is a hard working fisherman who was raised in the foster system and has the simple dream of fixing up his parents sailboat to sail around the world. He has a wonderful and honest boss who rightfully questions his devotion to his childhood friend Oliver. Oliver's dream is to make it big in the music industry, but unfortunately he doesn't have the talent to get him there. While helping Oliver out at his gig, Elliot gets discovered by the widow of a famous rock star. She seems to think her still grieving daughter (who is a producer) needs a pet project and Elliot is that project. The rest as they say is history. This is a slow moving love story with some beautiful songs. I am a big fan of great lyrics and I think this film is worth watching for the final song alone (the scene too...but it was the song that had the tears running). This is a recommendation for all the romantics out there and my review is based on watching the film in it's original Danish language with English subtitles.

When a movie starts with some unreasonable story lines, it loses credibility fast. For example, the main character defends his friend who gets attacked by a guy with a knife, and the friend is angry with him and totally cuts him off. LOL. Just dumb. Later, the main character is told to go to the house of a famous musician given that he's got a good voice and has great potential. He refuses to do so, who knows why, but a friend he works with forces him to go. Just dumb. Not realistic. I made it through the part where he falls in love with a producer lady, but I knew where the plot was heading. Without seeing the rest, fame is going to get to him and it will be reminiscent of her dad, who put fame over her and eventually killed himself. But somehow the fisherman turned singer we'll be the better version and they'll live happily ever after. Am I right? Just dumb. :)

Hello fellow Humans, This movie is good and bad all rolled into one. What do I mean by this. The movie has the main character who is a simple worker and doesn't have dreams of being a great singer. But he sings at a bar in a band because his friend messed up. Which a girl happens to be their who is in the industry. Apparently her father was a good musician and he died. So she helps him. But her mother is what makes the movie bad. Really the mother didn't need to be in the movie. Her role wasn't needed at all. Honestly the mother ruined parts of the movie for me. This was a good movie for the most part. If you watch it you will see why I say the mother isn't needed. The young woman could have pushed the main character with kindness and a little hardness. The woman could have been someone who inspired him to want to sing. The mother is ruthless and really a villain who didn't need to be a part of the movie. This movie had all the normal things like tragedy, heartbreak, love, happiness, sadness etc. Good movie and worth watching.

I don't get all the low star reviews. But it seems to happen more and more with subtle movies that rely more on the emotions they convey and all the things that are being said in the silences. I feel people are so accustomed to flashy super hero movies and probably scroll on their phone's endlessly while watching that they fail to see nuance. I watched the movie in Danish with subtitles, which is my recommendation for any movie. Dubbed is not the same, even when the actors themselves do it. There is rawness and depth in the original performance that no dubbing can ever convey. It also means you actually have to watch the movie and can't do anything else at the same time. This movie is foremost a music movie, it lives by Christopher's songs that are well written for the story. The story is about loss and the impact it has on people's lives. Overcoming grief, especially when it's a child's grief and the parents died way too early, is so very hard. Elliot is trapped in his grief. While it is painful it's also familiar and somehow safe, because he has been in that place of grief for such a long time. Letting go of that grief and opening to new relationships, new people who care about him, seeing all the people who love him, is the challenge he needs to overcome. One of my favorite scenes is when is fisherman boss delivers him to the producer's house and fires him. There is much love in him, pushing Elliot towards a good thing, but it takes Elliot forever to see that. Every character deals with loss and grief in this movie. And it's very interesting so see how different they deal with it. But watch for yourself to see.

Characters lacked depth. Story moved fast and songs kept me engaged. Great great music and sweet quick story. Every song had feeling and warmth that either brought a smile, a tear, or a warm heart . Music made movie a 9. Would have liked to know more back story on main character . It feels like movie has no middle. Movie starts and jumps to the end. I did like how the songs let the viewer make their own assumptions about each character starred. What each character felt of did not say or express was present via a song. Clever . Short and uplifting. Unique movie that left me glad I watched it. Definitely will be looking for amazing songs !!!!