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FitnessProsBooks.com - The Inheritance
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List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $19.89
Your Save: $ 10.06 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Homevision
Starring: Diana Axelsen, Francoise Brustis, Lars Brygmann, Gille Charrier, Jesper Christensen
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780029941
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 0780029941
Label: Homevision
Manufacturer: Homevision
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Homevision
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-06-07
Running Time: 115
Studio: Homevision
Theatrical Release Date: 2004-07-09
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Affecting
Comment: At first, what seems a documentary-style film with quite dry content, becomes a fascinating study of the power of family duty hardening the heart of a good man. Christoffer (Ulrich Thomsen) has a beautiful wife and great life. Just how he turns into a ruthless, impotent mechanoid, only interested in the family company's success - at the cost of everything and anything else that may be in its path, is both shocking and captivating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Family: Obligations, Commitments, Consequences
Comment: Writer/director Per Fly is a strong filmmaker from Denmark who is unafraid to make controversial statements that challenge certain 'family values' sentiments prevalent in this country. In this brilliantly written, directed and acted film he manages to reveal the inner destruction of a family under whose surface is an institution of envy. It is a riveting film that despite its in excess of two-hour length keeps us riveted to our seats in its never-ending exploration of the darker side of familial machinations.
Christoffer (Ulrich Thomsen) has escaped his Danish family and is comfortably ensconced in Stockholm as a successful restaurateur, living with the beautiful actress Maria (Lisa Werlinder) whose love for life extends beyond the fulfilling pleasures of the boudoir. Their bliss is interrupted by an unexpected visit from Chrisoffer's father who briefly spends time with the couple, happy for their state of success in all things. Upon his departure Christoffer receives a phone call that his father has hung himself and his presence is demanded in Denmark. Christoffer and Maria fly home to the matriarch of the family, Christoffer's mother Anneliese (the brilliant Ghita Norby) who immediately takes charge of the family, demands that Christoffer take over the failing family steel company thus skipping over Christoffer's designated brother-in-law Ulrick (Lars Brygmann), a fact that tears at Christoffer's sister Benedikte (Karina Skands). Taking the position of head of the family business would mean his giving up his dreams in Stockholm, negate Maria's burgeoning acting career, and placing Christoffer in the ominous position of having to fire longtime employees and make changes that would decimate many - not the least of which would be Christoffer's character. But Anneliese is strong and gets her way and thus the destruction of Christoffer's humanity and life begins.
Christoffer is able to merge the company with a French company and make the family business successful. But at what a cost? Maria leaves him after they have a child, Benedikte collides with him over his ruining her life with Ulrick, and Christoffer moves to France where he drowns his sorrows in alcohol. Per Fly is not one to tidy up all of the loose ends of a family disintegration: he leaves the end results of a bad decision up to the audience to figure out. It is this respect for the audience that endears this artist to us. The script is brilliantly written, the acting is superb, and the direction is tight and sensitive to the storyline. In every way this is a film worthy of our attention, not only as an art piece, but also as a means of re-examining 'family values' that here are presented in quite a different light than our usual reference phrase suggests. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 06
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Intelligently Made Film
Comment: This is a wonderfully intelligent and subtletly crafted film with Shakespearean overtones. It is understated for the most part (with the exception of one scene that is a bit jarring and out of place). It focuses on the burdens of family obligations - and the effect that peoples choices have to make. If you like this movie, I'd also recommend the Celebration with the same actor.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful tale of conflicting obligations
Comment: Four years ago, Christoffer left his family steel firm in Denmark and moved to Sweden. There he met and married a theater actress, Maria, and opened a restaurant. Together, they had established a happy life together.
When his father unexpectedly commits suicide, his mother calls him back to Denmark to take over the firm. This unwanted inheritance takes a great toll on his relationship and his soul.
The movie excellently portrays the conflict between family obligations, career ambition, and obligations to a partner. Full of tension, sadness, hope and despair, it's a portrait of humanity.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The Inheritance: Steel versus Love
Comment: This is a movie about a mother I wish you never have, and a son you should avoid emulating. He's in love with a fantastically beautiful woman, who also adores him. But daddy dies, and steely Mom inherits the Swedish steel factory. She has plans for her son, and by sheer force of character and intimidation, tries steering him away from his love. It's an insidious, relentless battle, with little compromise. Emotions are raw, and visage close-ups magnificient.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Startling in its blunt portrait of a man who fears he will lose his humanity by assuming control of a family business--and who then goes on to lose precisely that--The Inheritance won six Danish Academy Awards, including one for writer-director Per Fly. The second in an ambitious trilogy about class struggles planned by Fly, The Inheritance stars Ulrich Thomsen as Christoffer, a successful restaurateur living happily with a beautiful actress, Maria (Lisa Werlinder). Having fled responsibility for helping run his family's steel business--a miserable time for Christoffer that cost him his health and self-respect--the happy hero finds himself squeezed by his manipulative mother (Ghita Norby) into becoming CEO following his father's suicide. In short order, Christoffer finds himself doing everything he considers despicable: firing loyal employees, jockeying for greater power, forcing out other family members. Fly's somber, low-key storytelling doesn't have to drive home the slow drama of Christoffer's moral and ethical deconstruction. It's a compelling if painful thing to behold, and Thomsen's performance as a man who gets away from himself is something to see. --Tom Keogh
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