Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
Teringer
An Exercise In Nonsense
AutCuddly
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
Brendan-Conway
Watched it earlier on fear net, at first i knew it was something eerie but i seemed to like it as the movie went on, it was starting to get strange about this teacher, and this kid who's afraid of heights and this teacher lady was telling him to climb the rope in a nasty way, and i thought why could someone bitch around 6th graders? And as the movie started to come to an end started to like to see what happens in the end and what the fate would be of these kids plus the boy's father. so they go on this stupid field trip and these kids are trying to tell their mamas and dads they don't want to go because their teacher is a friggin monster. But i won't spoil the whole ending but i have to say you have to watch to see what happens. This is a must see for horror movie lovers.
siderite
If this would have been an American movie, the monster would have been silly, the parents understandable in their gullibility and the kids more concerned with their social standing. Also, anything scary would have probably been removed and the film would have been a Disney production.Well, they do things differently in Denmark, so they have some smart kids, with a complex relationship dynamic, completely ignorant parents that only believe what suits them best (especially when it comes to their children fantasies) and the monster is both fairly benign, totally scary and absolutely alien.The film is thus suitable for both parents and children, although I would call it more a family film with horrorish specks, and even if the whole "planet without love" thing was too corny and not very related to the rest of the film, the movie is watchable and enjoyable. At least I liked it.
hamhand
Finally a film, for both children and adults, which takes the kids and their thoughts seriously, with no exception whatsoever. Great storyline, superbly executed. Several climaxes and tear-dripping ending. I have now been able to watch it several times and I keep trying to hold back the tears at the end, where the "lost" son finds his strength through the grief of loosing his mother, now hugging his father with great affection after having stopped the alien's attempt to steal the children's born compassion and empathy for each other.Ole Bornedal shows new modernistic storytelling in a classical and highly professional level, bringing psychology and uniqueness to his own story. Scandinavian film has been small, very small, until this artist arrived with "Nattevagten/Nightwatch" and he kept on going. Thankyou for bringing and showing a great touch of the professional heart into film-making; finally. Bringing together the European psychology and the American classic storytelling.I'm happy.
demonictaco
When I first saw the trailer for this film, I knew it was something I had to watch. I can't remember any Danish sci-fi movies off the top of my head, and I knew that a director like Bornedal would never just tack on such a genre for no reason. It also seemed wonderfully crazy, and Danish black humour does work very well on film. When you actually go see the film, you realise that the fantastic elements of the story are only cosmetic, and that the film isn't about aliens with strange powers, but rather about what our society is changing into.The film's acting is spot on; the kids have been cast very well, their characters seeming genuine. The main character, Carl, is particularly well portrayed, and his emotions all seem perfectly sincere and authentic. You can't put a finger on the acting of any of the supporting roles either; Ulrich Thomsen does a very effective father, and Ulf Pilgaard seems delightfully mechanical in his portrayal of the "education minister". But in the end, with all due respect to all the other actors, Paprika Steen really outshines everyone else. She is frighteningly effective in her role as Ulla Harms, the Substitute. Constantly condescending towards the students in an effort to turn them into the best children possible, so they can compete in Paris with other students from various parts of Europe, Ulla Harms is a fantastic villain. The way she doesn't show any remorse at all towards the students she insults, the way she'll stop at nothing in her quest to discover what love is (which she, of course, tries to do in totally psychopathic manner).One of the few flaws the movie has is that it doesn't really flesh out certain characters who, while not actually very important to the plot, still get a lot of screen time and thus should be made more clear than they were. This makes some of the characters seem a bit shallow. The important characters are dealt with as they should, though, so it's not a very big problem.Another thing I can complain about is the ending. The final scene starts out very calmly, with a bit of narration from what I think is Ole Bornedal himself, and then suddenly explodes into a loud and very energetic series of credits. It didn't really fit in, and it seemed fairly pointless.All in all, the Substitute is a very entertaining movie; part social commentary, part black comedy, part horror. With stunning performances by virtually all the actors and a very effective script, the Substitute delivered everything I thought it would and much, much more. I can recommend it to all fans of Danish film-making.
