Average Rating: 5.7/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 6
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 3
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 292
Ole Christian Madsen follows up on his debut Pizza King with this Dogma 95 approved character study of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. At the film's outset, Mads (Lars Mikkelsen) dumps his girlfriend and picks up his wife at the local mental asylum. Upon being cast out of the peace and quiet of the institution, Mads' wife Kira (Stine Stengade) is noticeably agitated about being out in the real world. Of course, the lavish surprise "welcome home" party that Mads planned for her does
Unrated, 1 hr. 33 min.
Jan 17, 2003 Limited
Sep 23, 2003
First Run Features
All Critics (20) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (6) | DVD (4)
Stengarde gives an arresting performance as a mentally unstable woman.
The film never particularly achieves any depth or resonance and ultimately comes across as a series of wacky, albeit rather disturbing episodes.
Despite Kira's Reason's chamber-drama focus, it never achieves [Madsen's] first film's intimacy.
Tying up the psychological loose ends of a movie that promised so much more, the trite ending subscribes to the bogus therapeutic notion that one good cry and a confession of vulnerability can wipe away a lifetime of repression.
An incredibly touching ride along the jilting, jarring ups-and-downs of a deeply, madly loving relationship, where two people never quit trying, and failing, together.
[S]tunning... a sometimes painfully intimate peek at a crumbling marriage...
As [Kira's] actions become more impulsive and her marriage unravels, the film is engagingly unpredictable.
As this feature was originally recorded on digital video, the transfer on the DVD is clear and crisp.
Its pat finale ill-befits a film that otherwise strives successfully for stark emotional realism.
...Stengade's portrayal of a mad housewife is alternately arresting and repelling, the kind of work for which they ought to hand out statues.
Had the film's center been the husband, it would have been more intriguing.
Stengade, in her first leading role, is at once vulnerable and frighteningly manic.
While Madsen and his Dogme 95 colleagues seek to overcome Hollywood's influence, Kira's Reason is an indication that they are a product of the same patriarchy.
This Danish import provides a showcase for the lead actors, especially wide-eyed Stengade, who manages sensuality amid all the emotional volatility.
Steeped in a chaotic intensity that characterizes a fractured, disoriented mind.
The most colorful Dogme film, and the best to portray beauty, albeit damaged beauty.
[Allows] the actors to inhabit characters who are painfully contradictory, frustrating, flawed, vulnerable and bound to each other.
In Stine Stengade's intensely engaging performance, Kira is always one step away from the abyss, although, without apparent effort, she manages to hang on.
Been sick so I've been watching all of the dogma 95 movies that I never caught in the past... I really liked this movie...apparently a lot more than most people. It was really beautiful.
December 17, 2010I thought this movie was beautiful on all levels. From the writing, acting, production, etc. I was mesmerized by it all. Anyone who says that men don't understand women should consider how the male writer and director could get it so "right". Love the whole Dogma 95 thing.
June 22, 2008
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