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In A Better World (2011)

tomatometer

77

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 114
Fresh: 88 | Rotten: 26

In a Better World is a sumptuous melodrama that tackles some rather difficult existential and human themes.

77

Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 7

In a Better World is a sumptuous melodrama that tackles some rather difficult existential and human themes.

audience

85

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 6,441

My Rating

Movie Info

Anton is a doctor who commutes between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark, and his work at an African refugee camp. In these two very different worlds, he and his family are faced with conflicts that lead them to difficult choices between revenge and forgiveness. Anton and his wife Marianne, who have two young sons, are separated and struggling with the possibility of divorce. Their older, ten-year-old son Elias is being bullied at school, until he is defended by Christian, a new boy who has

R,

Art House & International, Drama

Aug 30, 2011

$1.0M

Sony Pictures Classics - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (114) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (88) | Rotten (26)

True, the resolutions on offer seem conventionally pat, yet the tough questions stay with you in an absorbing drama which pushes the viewer's buttons with effective intelligence.

August 17, 2011 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Susanne Bier's latest meditation on grief and the boundaries of family -- which won this year's foreign-film Oscar -- is a tough piece of work, subtle in some ways, obvious in others, viscerally affecting throughout.

June 3, 2011 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment (1)
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Simply put, this would be a better world if there were more films like In a Better World.

May 6, 2011 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comments (2)
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An ethically ambitious, morally thoughtful - and deeply vexing - drama about the fragility of civil order and the menace of the lawless.

April 29, 2011 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment (1)
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Asks worthwhile questions about how fathers can best lead their sons, about the expectations placed on men by society and about their struggles with their inner violent impulses, which can lay so dormant and unnoticed, then, in a frightening rush, explode.

April 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Miami Herald
Miami Herald
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[This] encasing parable is brand new and immediately provocative.

April 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A most deserving Oscar winner and a film that could provoke discussion anywhere it is shown, anywhere people of any age are being bullied

January 11, 2013 Full Review Source: McClatchy-Tribune News Service
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Film defies conventional expectations about biblical notions of retribution, even as it initially prepares you to accept them. A truly complex work of art.

March 11, 2012 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Un estupendo drama contemporáneo sobre algunos de los conflictos más básicos que acechan a hombres y mujeres de bien en cualquier rincón del mundo.

November 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total
Uruguay Total

It would have worked better if it weren't so obvious and manipulative. About halfway through, it plays more like a diagram of lessons learned than a movie about real people dealing with complicated problems.

October 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Scene-Stealers.com
Scene-Stealers.com

The microcosm of the children's world is exceptionally well drawn.

September 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Eye for Film
Eye for Film

In addition to being safe and non-threatening, Bier's film finds time to throw in mentions of cancer and divorce, and images of poor children starving in Africa. It's pretty much a recipe for an Oscar.

September 16, 2011 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid
Combustible Celluloid

Essentially an essay about bullying ( ... ) and the abuse of power, it will probably be appreciated most by people who want to keep up with [Susanne] Bier's maturing catalogue.

September 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Birmingham Mail
Birmingham Mail

It's well made but too flawed to be a satisfying cinematic experience.

September 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post

The superb acting - the youngsters are particularly good - and Bier's sympathetic direction help overcome the occasional lapse into melodrama.

August 25, 2011 Full Review Source: Radio Times | Comment (1)
Radio Times

Though the performances are excellent, it aint no Dogtooth.

August 24, 2011 Full Review Source: The Skinny | Comment (1)
The Skinny

The film is built on strong performances and some powerful moments, though its subtleties risk being eclipsed by contrived emotional pyrotechnics.

August 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

The movie holds your attention, but you leave discussing the manipulative plot rather than the moral issues it raises.

August 22, 2011 Full Review Source: Observer [UK]
Observer [UK]

A thought-provoking, powerfully acted and resonant exploration of rough justice in the modern world...

August 19, 2011 Full Review Source: Daily Express
Daily Express

Bier's strength is storytelling and her ability to find actors to do those stories justice.

August 19, 2011 Full Review Source: This is London
This is London

I wished I liked it more. But, for all its good points, this film is a high-concept contrivance of the sort Bier turns out easily, and looks like a faintly preposterous cine-soap opera for haemophiliac-hearted liberals.

August 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comments (2)
Guardian [UK]

A well-acted if glibly configured statement about violence begetting violence on two continents.

August 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph
Daily Telegraph

Bier, when she allows herself, loves the peripheral as much as the portentous. She understands that an image can tell more than words, more than even 1,000.

August 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Financial Times
Financial Times

Director Bier and her regular screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen construct a believable series of events where notions of Western civilisation as opposed to Third World moral disarray are put to the test.

August 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Sky Movies
Sky Movies

A compelling coming-of-age story and an intriguing examination of notions of masculinity.

August 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Little White Lies
Little White Lies

Bier excels in this humanist field, coaxing and combining both subtle and theatrical performances from her actors that place her at the top of her game.

August 17, 2011 Full Review Source: Real.com

Audience Reviews for In A Better World

Susanne Bier is one of the greatest directors ever. Simple as that. Her films deal with issues, but always with a fresh perspective. In A Better World has a young boy called Christian who has just lost his mother, return to Denmark. He joins a new school where he soon makes friends with a boy who is being bullied. Christian allows his anger to take hold, and events soon spiral out of control. The theme of bullying may seem like something best saved for after school specials, but Bier shows bullying in all its forms, from the playground, to grown ups, to African warlords. Questioning anger, revenge, and human rights, makes this a multi-layered film which is just begging for discussion. The performances are magnificent across the board and each character has a very well structured arc. With so much going on it would be easy for the film to trip over itself, but it never does. Touching, inspirational, and quite possibly life changing. In A Better World could honestly make the world a better place.
February 9, 2013
kiriyamakazou

Super Reviewer

A awesome film about a doctor who lives in Denmark but spends most of his life in Africa at a refugee camp. We see his life at home, his son and wife's dealing with life and him being gone and him fighting the local war lord who is raiding villages and taking children for his own little military. 4 Stars. 6-19-12
September 19, 2012
bbcfloridabound
Bruce Bruce

Super Reviewer

    1. Christian: No one will dare hit me now.
    – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)
    1. Elias: Hi Dad!
    2. Anton: Hi sweetie, did we agree to talk today?
    – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)

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Latest News on In A Better World

March 31, 2011:
Critics Consensus: Source Code Is Certified Fresh
This week at the movies, we've got a funny bunny (Hop, starring James Marsden and Russell Brand);...

Foreign Titles

  • In einer besseren Welt (DE)
  • In a Better World (Hævnen) (UK)
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