A Second Chance (En chance till).

Susanne Bier is a Danish filmmaker; born in Copenhagen in 1960 the 55 year old is best known in the UK for two award-winning movies After the Wedding (2006) and In A Better World (2010). Currently her work can be sampled on BBC TV on a Sunday night, as she is responsible for directing the miniseries The Night Manager that is based on the novel of the same name by John Le Carre and stars Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Coleman, Hugh Laurie and Tom Hollander. Her last feature film released in March 2015 is another Danish language movie A Second Chance (En chance till) (2014).

 

Happy families.....

....not quite!

Detectives Andreas (Nikolay Coster-Waldau) and Simon (Ulrich Thomsen) are the best of friends but lead vastly different lives; Andreas has settled down with his beautiful wife and son; while Simon, recently divorced, spends most of his off duty waking hours getting drunk at the local strip club. But things change when the partners are called out to deal with a domestic dispute that involves a criminal out on parole and the mother of his baby son. Both Tristan (Nikolay Lie Kaas) and Sanne (ex model Lykke May Anderson) are junkies and as witnessed by the state of their baby covered in excrement are not loving and caring parents. When Social Services refuse to take the baby away and a family tragedy strikes Andreas it forces the normally upstanding policeman to commit an act that that he will live to regret.

 

Two Detectives that lead vastly different live's - that is until.... 

This moving thriller with a difference about ordinary people is made quite believable by the skill of the director and the acting from her well-known cast. Although Anders Thomas Jensen script is a little predictable at first it soon gathers pace developing into a great story that, without given anything away, has a grand twist. I would certainly recommend this movie to those of you that love a gritty Scandinavian drama and will not be put off by a heart-rending story.